HanyouEXE
by Garret Jax
Summary: Kagome, a cybersavy senior in highschool, has managed to steal a top secret bit of software from a very famous japanese company. Unfortunately, this software turns out to be a very abusive, rude AI named InuYasha. AU, InuKag, M for language and violence
1. Download Complete

_Verifying connection…_

_Dialing 872 – 5763…_

_Connecting…_

_Verifying username and password…_

_Registering computer on the network…_

_Connected…_

Welcome to the World Wide Web: a vast, nearly infinite network of data and information. Here, everything is knowledge, stored in binary: enough ones and zeros to fill all the oceans on the planet, all flying around above our heads on the magical thing known as the internet. Here, information is bought and sold like livestock. Just like in the real world, nothing here is ever really free. And just like in the real world, if you don't want to pay for something, you have to steal it.

Kagome Higurashi dropped her spoon into the bowl, and leaned back, stretching her lithe frame.

Kagome's mother smiled at her across the table, and cocked her head. "All done?"

Kagome nodded, and pushed herself away from the table, pulling some of her long raven hair away from her pretty face. "I'm gonna be up in my room, okay?"

Mrs. Higurashi glared at her for just a moment, a few wrinkles forming around her eyes as they narrowed. "Are you going online again?" She asked. Kagome's mother was very… what you'd call traditional (meaning that anything more advanced than Pong was libel to hold demons that would leap out and eat your soul). "You should really be careful about spending so much time on the internet."

The raven haired girl rolled her warm chocolate eyes, and crossed her arms across her white blouse. "Mom…" She admonished. "Not all technology is bad."

The woman clearly did not believe. "Well, if you have all your homework done, then I suppose…"

Kagome took the opportunity, and instantly retreated towards the hall of their family's small apartment, heading directly for her room. "Thanks, Mom!" She called back over her shoulder as she got to the plain, wooden door, and with the grace of a cat slinked inside.

The moment she set foot in the room, she leaned against the door, pushing it closed, head bowed for just a few moments. Her long, sable hair fell into her face, obscuring the sly grin plastered across it.

She headed over to her bed, still decorated with the same teddy bear comforter she had had since age twelve, and flopped down on it, taking a few deep breaths. Her room was small, and overly girly, but it did the job well enough. The bed was just pathetic, and she certainly didn't have what one could call a spacious closet. Dirty clothes were neatly filed away in a mesh basket in one corner of the room, and the little lines still evident on the tan carpet told of a vacuuming not too many hours before. Kagome hated it when her room was like this. How was she supposed to be able to enjoy herself with so much… _clean _lying around?

The room's single saving grace was the desk. It was a large wooden affair that had once belonged to Kagome's great grandmother, one of those huge things with about twenty drawers and cubbies hidden around in it. The wood was stained to a beautiful dark mahogany. Kagome loved her desk with a passion unrivaled by most anything else in the world. Partly because of its appearance: little bits of paper and shreds of history reports long passed due lay scattered all over its surface. A few pieces of candy left over from a Halloween party half a month earlier were spattered over the bits of paper, looking for little dark corners where they had a chance at reproduction. The drawers themselves were so stuffed full or random odds and ends that more than half of them were completely inaccessible, long ago jammed with an ill placed pencil or random chunks of a broken CD. It was a beacon of chaos in her room, a harsh and hostile onslaught of order and cleanliness.

The main reason she loved her desk so very much, however, was because of the computer that sat on top of it. The beautiful thing was a work of art. A twenty one inch flat-screen monitor, over one hundred sixty gigs of hard-drive space, the best video and sound cards on the market, and more processing power than was (technically) legal to have. Kagome had taken full advantage of EBay (along with several very profitable internet activities).

Leaning over the back of the uncomfortable chair that faced the ancient bureau, she hit the power button to start the machine warming up, and then turned away from the computer, staring at the door. She normally didn't like locking her door, but today it was critical. To have an ill timed mother walking in could spell disaster. She strode over to the door, and flipped the latch with a quiet click. Then she turned and leaned against the door, clearing her mind.

Wits were essential for what she was about to do. If you didn't have your mind in gear, you were so screwed it wasn't even funny. She slowly reached into one of the pockets of her short green school skirt, and pulled out a pair of black, leather biker gloves. Wits were essential, but so was style. She slipped the gloves on, and swooped her phone off the stand on her bedside table. She quickly dialed the appropriate number, and waited for the call to connect. After only a few rings, a friendly voice came through the phone.

"Hello? Lorensen residence."The voice said in a nice alto. That was the mother.

"Hiya, Mrs. Lorensen. This is Kagome." She didn't really bother saying who she wanted to talk to.

_"Oh, hello, Kagome!" _The voice exclaimed, several hundred decibels too loud. Some people didn't realize that you didn't have to shout through a phone. _"I'll go get Terri for you!" _

"Thanks." The girl chirped into the phone, glancing in a mirror and messing with her hair. As the soft sounds of the woman on the other end scuffling through the house came through to Kagome's ear, the girl pulled and yanked at her tresses until they were nice and disheveled, just the way she liked.

"Hey, Kag." Terri's voice echoed through the earpiece, "Wassup?"

Kag grinned, and slipped into the uncomfortable chair in front of the now glowing monitor. "Not much." She said nonchalantly. "You ready for tonight?"

Terri's giggle came through the phone in a high pitched titter. "I'm just getting set up." She said.

Kagome nodded. "I'm putting up my security."

"Wonderful." The voice on the phone practically radiated excitement. "This one's gonna be big, Kag."

"What are we going after?" Kagome asked, curiosity overcoming. She had been dying to know since she had found out about the plans today in school.

"You sure you wanna know?" Terri's voice teased. "Get online first, and I'll tell you once we're connected."

Kagome rolled her eyes, and quickly began the connecting process. Dialup was a royal pain in the butt, sometimes. But no matter how much she tried to convince her mother that faster was better, Mrs. Higurashi remained convinced that the only thing a broadband connection would do would be to destroy her daughter's soul even faster. So her she was, waiting for her stupid server to verify her username and password. Finally, after what seemed like ten minutes, the little popup appeared on her screen, and informed her that she was connected. She grinned and, with a smooth set of typed instructions into her console, delved into the sea of digital code that her little pirate ship of a computer sailed on. She was the scourge of the information ocean. She was a hacker.

"Okay, Terri." She muttered. "I'm on. Go ahead and tell me what's going on."

"Fine." Terri's voice echoed in her ear. "I got a big scoop on a company from Japan. They've got a little 'transaction' going on tonight."

Kagome suddenly felt a little tug on her heart. A _company_? They normally had security like mad! What was Terri thinking?

"And how do you propose we get away with that?" She demanded.

A bit of smugness oozed through the phone, accompanied by Terri's cheerful voice. "Well, a very trustworthy little bird told me that this given company makes its transactions in such a way that there's always one point where security's next to zilch. Plus, it's not the most legal of transactions. It's supposed to be _sub rosa_, you know?"

An illegal operation? That was a little boost of confidence anyway. It took away the risk of legal action, anyway. But there was still an edge of danger: non-legal retribution was often considerably more lethal than the alternative. "Security at a minimum?" Kagome asked, whirling through a vast set of menus on her computer screen. "You sure about that?"

"Positive. This little bird has many little bird friends, and it hasn't let me down yet." Terri's voice echoed back, practically busting with boundless confidence.

Kagome nodded slowly. It was risky, but that was what had gotten her into the business in the first place. Risky sometimes equaled fun. "Okay, I'm in." The raven haired girl said, tightening her gloves. "But if things go wonky, then we call it off and pull the plug, kay?"

"But of course." The girl on the other end of the phone giggled. "Now set up your security. I'll do the downloading. You're stuck with runner."

Kagome swore to herself inwardly. She _hated _being runner. That was what she got for having a slow connection. Her job was to go into the network they were working on and create just enough of a distraction to create an opportunity for Terri to get in and nab some of the data. Problem was that if someone got caught, it was always the runner. You never heard of the person downloading getting caught, it was always the one distracting.  
"Fine." Kagome muttered curtly. "I'll start setting up my security."

"Make sure it's tight Kag. This company might be a little lax, but I don't think that means you can be lazy."

Kagome began turning on her multitude of ghost programs, masking programs, and ID mods. That done, she started going out and lacing through this or that server, well masking any traces of her identity. Even if by some odd chance she was detected, her poor victims wouldn't have any idea who she was or where she came from.

After maybe thirty minutes of weaving in and out of her security measures she picked the phone back up, and crooked it between her shoulder and neck. "Okay, now tell me where we're making our hit."

With the fluid grace of a practiced team, Kagome and Terri ghosted through the complex networks, jumping from data node to data node. "Okay." Terri's voice told her finally, once they had come to rest in some very well hidden server deep in the network. "This is where the files are being uploaded. We'll wait here, and as soon as I give the signal, you start picking at stuff."

"Gotcha…" Kag muttered, crossing her arms and looking at her screen. "Tell me when."

And so the waiting game began. The transfer was simple, working in the same style that most illegal operations worked. The company would upload the software onto a temporary server, and almost instantly the client would begin downloading. As soon as the transaction was complete, the server would be destroyed, and all records removed. Almost as if it had never happened. Except for the wee fact that anyone on the side could sit and pick bits off the server too, provided they were quiet enough.

It was almost an hour later when Terri's voice came back through the phone. "They're uploading. Start making some cover." Then there was only silence. She had hung up.

Kagome nodded, and brought up the server status, looking at the uploading queue. Only one thing uploading… that was their baby. She started out slow, tightening some bandwidth, maybe taking a few lines of code here and there: just enough to start drawing the attention of any security personnel that might have been watching. Terri would have taken the queue by now, and started the download. Kagome just had to keep this up, and everything would go fine. She changed one more minor little detail, then left again, quickly erasing all traces of her existence on the network. She didn't have too much time, but she quickly changed some of her security programs, making her seem like a completely different person, and threaded back online again, instantly popping into the transaction server, and began messing with stuff again, creating just a bit more ruckus. Kagome's heart was beating adrenaline through her body as her fingers flew across her keyboard. It was here, when everything was going perfectly on the job that it was really all worth it.

Terri should be getting close to done now. She had a high speed connection, and servers like this tended to have things that expedited downloads quite nicely. But just to be safe, she would wait until Terri gave her the call to confirm it. A little warning light went off in her head, and she subbed out again, erasing her identity once more and creating a new one. A third time she lapsed into the server, and began to fiddle. She modified the bandwidth once more, and altered a few more lines of code here and there, watching the status of the server like a hawk, should anything go wrong.

She almost didn't notice the popup window at the bottom of her screen when it appeared. It was just a little bitty thing, but something about it caught her eye. A little line of text on the top of the window read 'Download Status: Opening Connection.'

A little frigid spear sliced through Kagome's heart. She stared at her screen in shocked horror. She hadn't started any downloads. That meant… "_Shit!_" She swore suddenly practically falling off her chair as she reached desperately for the internet cord at the back of her computer. Someone had caught her, hacked into her own system. _Started a download! _She scrabbled desperately at the back of the computer, trying to find the internet cable in the immeasurable mess of other cords and wires that snapped into the back.

"Kagome?" Her mother's voice came from the hall, and the door handle jingled just a little. "Kagome, are you alright? Why is the door locked?"

"Just changing clothes, Mom!" She said, trying to keep the frantic tone out of her voice. Oh, god, if someone got a hold of her ID then who knows what they could do. Finally she managed to grab the proper wire and yank it out of the back of her computer, ending any connection she had to the internet.

She came up again, slamming her head against the underside of the desk in the process. Clutching at her aching cranium, and glared at the screen, breathing quickly.

The little words in the window at the bottom of her screen read 'download complete.'

She stumbled back away from her computer, clutching one hand to her gaping mouth, trembling. "Oh god…" She breathed. "Oh God, oh God, oh God." This couldn't be happening... there was no way. If someone had caught her, then she was screwed. Even in the best case scenario, there was no way they just sit back and let a hacker slide. The _thing _that was now on her computer was probably some sort of virus, already eating away at all her systems. And she highly doubted they would stop there. If this company was nasty enough, she might even have a little 'accident' coming home from school one day. God, she was only eighteen for crying out loud! How could this happen to her. They might even come after Terri too.

Her eyes with sudden shock. Terri! She was still online. Like a flash Kagome leapt to the phone, but before she could even pick it up it started ringing shrilly, caterwauling loud in her ears. She picked up the phone. "Hello?" She demanded in a flurry of desperation. If this was one of her other friends she was going to kill whoever it was.

"Kagome!" Terri's voice hissed into her ear. "Things went wrong, get off now."

Kagome breathed a sigh of relief. "I sort of noticed." She growled.

"You're already off?" Terri demanded, relief crawling into her voice. "Great."

Kagome looked at her computer screen, and bit her lip. "It's not great." She muttered.

There was a brief moment of silence. "What's wrong, Kagome." Her friend asked finally, sensing something wrong.

"Someone hacked me, Terri." Kagome said, flopping down at her computer. "I'm not sure how, but they did. I was in the middle of covering for you, and someone put something on my computer."

"What?" Terri's voice demanded, a little panicked. "What kind of something?"

"I don't know!" Kagome half whispered, her voice wavering just a little bit. This was all a little much for her. "It was fast though. I pulled my plug as fast as I could but it still got through."

"Okay, okay." Terri said, and Kagome could almost hear her thinking through the phone. "Stay calm. Did you have all your security up?"

"Of course I did." Kagome said, just a little indignantly despite her nervousness.

"Then we might still be okay." Terri said. "My download started the second I got to the server, so it might have been automatic. Maybe it just took longer for you to get there…"

Kagome let out a breath. It was a glimmer of hope, anyway. "You think?" She asked.

"Your computer doing weird things?" The Kagome's friend asked.

Kagome looked over at her monitor. It hadn't changed. "Nothing externally." She muttered. "But we could have problems on the inside."

"Check that quick." The girl dictated. "I'll check mine too, just in case."

Kagome nodded to herself, and timidly went over to her computer. A quick sweep over her systems did wonders for her nerves. No viruses found, no tracers on her CPU, nothing that would let anyone find her anywhere. If anything alien was on her computer, it was so well hidden that it was hopeless to look for. "I don't see anything." She said, her voice returning more towards normal. "Anything with you?"

"I got nothing new on my system." Terri sighed. "Not even any of the software we were going after."

Kagome rolled her eyes, and shook her head. Terri always kept her eye on the prize, even when it almost killed them. "How bout we be happy that we aren't busted, okay?"

The girl could imagine Terri rolling her eyes too. "Fine." She grumbled through the phone. "So, if you don't have any viruses, then what _did _you download?"

Kagome blinked, and looked at her monitor again. "Hold on, I'll check around."

She closed all her windows, and checked her default download file, the place where all her unspecified downloads went to. Sure enough sitting right there was a little icon that wasn't there before. "I've got something here." She admitted. "It's called Hanyou.EXE."

There was just a little silence on the other end of the line.

"Terri?" Kagome asked, wondering what was wrong.

A happy, throaty laugh came through the other end of the phone, jarring her ear. "We got it Kagome." Terri said happily.

A bit of confusion prang up in Kagome's mind. "We got what?"

"The software." Terri chuckled. "I'm not quite sure, but you managed to get the file that I was trying to download."

Kagome blinked just a moment, then slumped back into the chair, shaking her head in shock. Then, after just a moment, she started laughing too.


	2. AI

Sorry, this would have been up sooner, but ten page English papers have a tendency to take up good amounts of time.

Anywho, thanks for all your comments, and I have to say that I've never seen this sort of plot done before either. But then again, that's why I chose it, I guess. It's going to be real fun writing this.

A few quick comments to my faithful reviewers here, and away we'll go:

CAMintmier: The Rockman.exe series actually had no place in the creating of this fic. If anything, the idea started a long time ago with Saro's fic, Synthetic Emotions, in which Inu was a cyborg. I just got to thinking that Cyborgs had to have programming, and here I am. Hehe, thanks for the support.

ShatteredJade: Hold on just a second… A sumo wrestler? A SUMO WRESTLER? You mean, like, the 500 pound kind of sumo wrestler? I'd be interested to know what fic that comes from…

To all the readers of my other fics: I have not abandoned them, and rest assured that they will be updated. I just need a little break before continuing on that story line again, so I'll be posting on both these two again soon.

To all the others without questions: Thanks for your reviews. They mean a lot to me. Treasures reviews forever

A quick disclaimer: I don't own InuYasha, but if I had Kagome's hacking skillz, I could…

Oh, and one more thing, in this chapter Italics in side a single quote, like _'this' _is either text someone is typing into a computer, or text that is displaying.

* * *

Somewhere in downtown Tokyo, there was a skyscraper. It wasn't particularly a tall building, nor large. But its shadow fell over the entire city.

In a nice, medium sized office in that building sat a man. He leaned back at his large, padded chair, fingers steepled in front of his fair face. His long black hair was let free to fall in loose locks down to just slightly below his strong shoulders. He wore a fine business suit, with tie just a little relaxed around his neck. A few pieces of modern art hung here and there around the room, but other than that the plain, off-white walls were bare.

On the door to his office, there was a quiet knock. If it was possible, the man could have sworn that it sounded fearful.

"Come in." He said, his voice a clear, confident baritone.

The door opened, and a young girl sidled in, looking extremely nervous. She was a young thing, maybe twenty, wearing a classy business skirt and matching coat over her white oxford shirt. Her eyes, both very dark brown, were fixed on him in a mixed expression of fear and respect. That was appropriate enough, he supposed. He was one of the most powerful men in Japan, after all. Power was always intimidating. He stared at her for just a second more, his calm eyes, turned a deep amber by specially made contact lenses, sweeping over her critically. "Well?" He demanded suddenly, breaking the heavy silence in the room.

The girl jumped just a little at the sudden noise, but quickly covered her surprise. "Ahh…" She said intelligently, "Mr. Taisho, sir… umm…"

Taisho rolled his eyes ever so slightly, and leaned forward, now clasping his hands in front of him on the desk. "Please speak clearly." He said. "Articulation is important, you know."

The girl nodded vigorously. "Yes sir." She said sharply.

Even while shaking his head, Taisho's eyes never left her. "What is your name?"

This seemed to startle the girl. Having a person whose political influence was probably greater than the prime minister's ask your name would have that effect, Taisho guessed. "My name?" She almost stuttered. "Kikyo, sir."

Taisho nodded, and for the first time looked away form her to type something into his computer. Glaring at the screen he nodded. "Higashi Kikyo." He read, causing Kikyo to startle again. "Age: twenty one, works in programming with occasional deviances into the security department. Has an inner security clearance, and does large amounts of work on our more secretive projects. A low level programmer for behavioral algorithms in project hanyou." The man looked up at the shocked woman, and inwardly smiled to himself at the sight of her shocked expression. "I knew that name sounded familiar."

Kikyo nodded, seemingly determined to press on. She swallowed heavily, and continued. "There has been a problem, sir." She said swiftly. "In the transaction."

Taisho raised one eyebrow. "A problem?"

"Project Hanyou has been intercepted, Sir." The girl said, fear hanging in her voice. "A hacker downloaded it, sir."

Taisho almost chuckled. The rumors about his wrath must be going around rampantly this year. This girl was more frightened than a kitten. "And?" He asked after just a moment.

Kikyo blinked. "And what, sir?" She asked. "Hanyou was intercepted. A hacker got it."

"I understand that." Taisho said patiently. "Is there anything else?"

Kikyo licked her lips, and nodded. "The file disappeared after it was downloaded. Our client didn't get it."

Taisho nodded, taking this all in smoothly. "Do we have any idea who the hacker was?"

Kikyo shook her head. "He had some sort of cover, sir. We couldn't get any sort of lock on it." She paused for just a moment. "With your permission, sir, we think that someone in the company must have been helping him."

Taisho nodded and waved a hand in dismissal. "See if you can patch things over with our client, but don't give him another copy of the software until I can talk to him." He said dismissively.

Kikyo visibly flinched, and took a step back. "Me, sir?" She asked, a little shock in her voice. He nodded. "But sir…" She stuttered. "I'm a programmer. I'm not with customer relations."

The man leaned back in his chair again, and steepled his fingers. "Do I really look like a man who cares what your job is?" He asked calmly. "I asked you to take talk to our client, so go talk to our client."

Kikyo stood up strait suddenly, and nodded. "Yes, sir." She said stiffly, and quickly walked out of the office.

Taisho shrugged, and turned back to his computer screen. It showed quite a bit more about the employee who had just left his office than he had let on. Taisho made it his business to know his employees. Often, he knew them quite a bit better than they knew themselves. Kikyo was talented enough, certainly. She needed watching. Taisho could certainly do something with someone of her skill. She needed a little loosening up though. Far too uptight.

He hit a little intercom button, and after just a moment a voice spoke in his ear. "Yes, Mr. Taisho, Sir?" The voice belonged to Takashi Kouga, the manager off the illegal portions of Taisho's business. He was very good at making sure all of Taisho's less than scrupulous operations went smoothly and kept them out of the media.

"Young Kikyo should be returning to your department shortly." He informed the man. "I can only assume that out client for project hanyou is less than pleased with the sudden turn of events.

"He is… unhappy, sir." Kouga informed him.

"Excellent." Taisho said, drumming his fingers against themselves. "I would like Kikyo to be the one to placate him, if you please."

There was just a moment of pause. "Excuse me, sir?" Koga asked with just a hint of disbelief. "If I may, I think that is a mistake, sir."

Taisho raised one eyes, and looked over Kikyo's profile again. "I am aware that the girl is not terribly good at public speaking, Mr. Takashi." He glanced over her high school grades. She had barely passed speech class. "However, I would like her to do it anyway. Call it an experiment if you will."

Another substantial pause. "Yes sir." Kouga said, just a little sullenness creeping into his voice.

"Thank you Koga." Taisho murmured, and cut of the intercom.

He paused for just a second, gathering his thoughts, and began to shift back towards the task he had been at before he had been interrupted. He closed Kikyo's profile, and brought up another that he had only created a few hours ago. Oddly enough, he had started creating it just around the time project Hanyou had been stolen. On his screen was the picture of a girl with long black tresses, and a happy grin on her face. She couldn't have even been out of high-school: not quite what Taisho had expected in a hacker, but he couldn't complain. It could have been someone a lot worse, after all. "Very well, Miss Higurashi…" He murmured. "What exactly are you up too?"

* * *

Thrill. It was the fall of mankind. People had risen to greatness, then fallen into infamy in a single day because of it. It was a tingle of fear running down your spine. It was looking Death in the face and knowing that this time there was no escaping it. It's the feeling of your heart gently slowing down after, against all odds, you do manage to escape this time. It's the thing that, time after time, draws you back to face Death again.

Okay, well, Death might have been just a little over exaggerated. Kagome thought for just a moment as she leaned back in the hard uncomfortable chair, getting ready for a long night of work. No, not death, but one helluva case of Identity Theft. Any sane person would be scared away for good after the scare Kagome had just had, but she knew she'd be back at the game again, probably within the week. Nothing would stop her.

A wonderful little shock ran down her spine as she opened up the file that contained the new software. She couldn't help but wonder what it was. Maybe a new operating system… that could be interesting. It was more likely that it was some sort of security system, but Kagome certainly couldn't complain about that. A hacker never said no to more security. It was the single most important thing.

She sat back for just a moment, inspecting the file. Hanyou.EXE huh? She browsed the properties of the file looking for anything weird, but couldn't find anything odd about it. The only disappointing thing about it was the file size. At only three megs, it was sort of piddly. Kagome would kick herself if it turned out to just be some little thing, like a single bit of code or whatnot. Hopefully it was _something _useful.

Well, there was only one way to find out. With a gleam of anticipation in her eye, Kagome double clicked on the little icon. After only a moment, a little popup window appeared.

_Do you wish to install Hanyou.EXE? _

Kagome narrowed her eyes just a bit, and crossed her arms. Installation… that could be tricky. Once you installed something on your system, it was hard to get off again. But what harm could it do, unless it was a virus. She minimized the box, and checked all her virus blockers. Everything was running at full capacity. She brought up the window again, but when she saw it.

_I said, Do you wish to install Hanyou.EXE?_

She blinked, and read the box a few more times. That wasn't what it had said just a second before, was it. It looked different. She pursed her lips, and watched the window intently. Sure enough, just a moment later, the text changed again.

_Look, do you want Hanyou or not? _

This was distinctly weird. Very, very weird. Most install applications didn't harass you if you didn't go fast enough. Still, it was probably just some programmed loop. Kagome wouldn't be surprised if it started repeating itself. Some programmers just had really quirky senses of humor.

_Okay, listen, I'm just gonna assume that you wanna install, okay? You got five seconds. _

Kagome shook her head as the text in the window started counting down. How very impressive. Finally, around two, she ended it by clicking the yes button.

_Thank you for installing Hanyou.EXE. _

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Your welcome." She muttered, and crossed her eyes, waiting for something to happen.

The window closed automatically, and very suddenly the screen went black. Not off-black, but displaying the actual color black.

_Preparing to install Hanyou. _The screen read. _Please wait while the appropriate files are downloaded. _

Kagome blinked, and shook her head. Downloading other files? She was instantly on guard again. What was being downloaded onto her computer? A little bit of the Thrill set in again, and she leaned forward with just a bit of anticipation.

_Accessing Taisho Server… _

_Access denied, download failed…_

The raven haired girl nodded, finally, a bit off disappointment settling in. If the program was just going to download things, then it was practically useless. She probably wouldn't have access to anything it would be trying to get.

_Accessing Project Hanyou Data Storage… _

_Access Denied… _

Project Hanyou? Well, maybe her little toy was something more. But it still probably wasn't going to prove anything too useful without all the files it was missing.

_Attempting to reroute through backup servers… _

_Rerouting…_

_Accessing…_

_Access denied… _

_Downloads unsuccessful. _

_Would you like to continue installation anyway? _

Kagome shrugged. "Sure…" She muttered. "Why not." But when to accept, she found that on the blank screen she had no mouse, nor where there any affirmative buttons. She jiggled her mouse just a little.

_Oh… Sorry. Forgot about the buttons. Hold on just a second. _

The girl gaped just a moment at that statement. _Forgot?_ Computer Programs didn't forget things… it wasn't possible.

_Here we go. _

And suddenly there was a yes button and a no button on the screen, but still no pointer. She jiggled her mouse just a little more.

_Know what, just hit 'y' or 'n,' okay? _

Okay, now whoever programmed this was creeping her out just a little. Had the programmer actually planned all this out? She hit the 'y' button.

_Good job. Took you long enough. _

Was the program insulting her? Whoever had made this whole process had certainly gone out of his way to make sure it was a pain in the butt.

_Finishing the install process…_

_Finished._

And then the blackness of her screen was interrupted by a face. It floated in the middle of her monitor, completely disembodied from any form of body. It was well drawn in a chibi anime style, and looked remarkably cute. A little mane of grayish white hair surrounded the head, and the face itself looked almost cherubic and boyish. The impish little nose, and strong, dark eyebrows left no question that the face was supposed to be masculine. Out of the top of his head, nestled in the main of hair, were two little triangles that, knowing the style of drawing it was, were probably some sort of animal ears. The eyes were closed, along with the mouth, and it appeared to be sleeping.

Kagome really, really hoped that she hadn't gone through all that work for a pretty picture. It might be nice as a desktop wallpaper for a week or so, but after that it would be pretty much useless.

Then the eyes popped open. They had an odd yellowish, orange shade too them that, had her computers resolution been just a bit better, probably would have been beautiful. Those eyes shifted once to the left, then to the right, then back to staring right out of the monitor at Kagome, as if they could see her.

The mouth moved, a quick, two frame animation.

_'Hello.'_

The word was displayed at the bottom of the screen in white, plain text.

Kagome cocked her head, then leaned down towards her computer. "Hello?" She answered back.

Nothing happened. Well, duh, she didn't have sound receptors in her computer. She tentatively typed in the word.

_'Hi.' _The face responded.

Kagome blinked, and crossed her arms. This was odd.

A few more moments passed, and then face spoke again.

'_Did you want something?' _

Kagome blinked at the face just a little while more, then leaned down towards the keyboard. _'Who are you?' _She typed, and sat back again. Was someone talking to her over the net? That was a disturbing could find her that easily?

The face blinked once, then spoke again. _'Hanyou.' _The words appeared on her screen. _'You just installed me, remember?'_

The raven haired girl took a sharp breath. An AI? No way! A real, honest, Artificial Intelligence? _'Are you an AI?'_

The face on the screen raised one eyebrow, and smirked. _'Gee, how long did it take to figure that one out? I hope you didn't strain your vast intellect with that.'_

She blinked, and shook her head. She was being insulted by a program. But programs couldn't insult, could they? Even the most advanced AI could only plot out responses from your own, and it sounded like this was doing a whole lot more than that. _'How do I know you're an AI?' _She typed.

'_What else would I be, genius?' _

'_A hacker?' _

The face paused for just a moment, then smirked even more. _'Well, it could be, except for the fact that you're not connected to the net…' _

Kagome blinked, and glanced down at the cables connecting to her system. Sure enough, the internet connection was severed, the cord lying where she had unplugged it just a few hours before. That meant that no-one was accessing her computer remotely… but that could only mean…

"Holy crap…" She whispered. "It is an AI…" A million questions flooded her head suddenly. She had what could very well be the most advanced piece of software on the face of the planet sitting on her computer, and it was insulting her.

'_Hey, I'm waiting, here.' _The text on the screen declared. _'I don't really have ears, so you'll have to type.' _

The girl leaned in, and began to quickly type in her console. _'Who made you?' _She asked.

The face blinked at her for just a moment, then its golden eyes went flat. _'You don't know?' _He demanded.

'_No.' _Kagome typed, watching the intricate workings of the face on the screen. The art itself was gorgeous, but the movements were jerky and obviously framed. Kagome could only guess that there were only a certain number of different pictures Hanyou could use.

'_Well then we're stuck here, aren't we…' _The text appeared. _'I'm missing a bung of files I need, so I couldn't tell ya.' _

Well, so much for that idea. _'Do you know what you were made for?'_

'_No Idea.' _

Okay, that was weird. Did this thing know anything at all? _'What can you tell me, then?' _

The face closed its eyes, as if thinking for a moment, then opened them again. _'I can tell you what's on your computer.' _The text displayed.

Kagome gasped. "You can access my files?" She demanded, forgetting that the program couldn't hear her. That was in invasion of privacy! _'Don't you dare.' _

The face grinned at her, the mouth opening in a soundless laugh. _'Or else what?' _

Kagome glared at the face angrily. What exactly could she do about it? Would she be able to delete him, even if she tried? Fine, if he wanted to play like that, then she'd just let him. _'Fine.' _She typed angrily. _'And just what can you tell me about my computer.' _

The program closed his eyes again, then grinned. _'Well, for starters you have no idea how to format an operating system. Your virtual memory's almost maxed just running me.' _One of those strong, dark eyebrows rose. _'You sure this computer doesn't belong to a two year old?' _

Kagome bristled, eyes narrowing angrily. _'So what would you do?' _She smacked into the keyboard.

Suddenly, the blank screen vanished, bringing up her average windows display, and the head minimized to a little icon at the bottom of the screen. The little words kept appearing at the bottom of the screen. _'Well you need more virtual memory, genius.' _The face commented, and suddenly windows began popping up and closing again just as fast. _'You wouldn't know how to fix the problem, so I'll just do it for you.' _

Kagome's hands clenched at her sides, and she made a very angry face at her computer screen. Did this stupid piece of software have an entire sub program for insulting people or something?

'_Jeez, and your files look like crap. You mind if I organize 'em for you?' _

'_Yes, I do.' _Kagome typed, not even remotely liking how much control the program was suddenly exercising over _her _computer.

The face on the screen growled at her. _'fine, but you better do it yourself. It's like trying to wade through three feet of toxic waste in here. No wonder your system's so slow.' _

'_So, what did you just do?' _Kagome typed.

'_What, in terms _you _would understand?' _The program asked, making Kagome stiffen. _'I made you faster. Try and open a file or something.' _

Kagome blinked, and eyed the screen carefully. She moved her curser around, and clicked delicately on Microsoft word. The second she had pressed the mouse button twice, the document appeared, waiting patiently for her to write something. The process that had normally taken about ten seconds had taken place instantaneously. Quickly she moved to another program, this time one that normally took a minute or two. It also opened the moment she clicked.

'_Heh… Not bad, huh?' _

Kagome took a deep breath, then another, than another. This was… happy. Very happy. This was better than security. Heck, this wonderful little program could probably handle security. _'Not bad at all.' _She typed, all previous anger dissipating in the glory of high speed computer functionality. _'So what should I call you?' _

There was a pause. _'I was code named InuYasha.' The program said. _

InuYasha, huh? It had a nice ring to it… _'Okay, InuYasha,' _She typed. _'I'm Kagome.' _

'_Keh.' _The program typed back. _'A girl. No wonder your computer's so messed up.' _

Kagome took another deep breath, trying to drive back her once again rising temper. _'What else can you do?' _She typed, ignoring the comment entirely.

The face in the corner of her screen beamed at her, showing off little fangs. _'I'm only getting started, Wench. Just watch.' _

Kagome clenched her teeth, but said nothing.

It was many hours later, when her clock read 4 AM, before Kagome finally fell asleep in the uncomfortable chair in front of her glowing monitor.


	3. Online

Okay, another chapter up. For the record, my updates are split between this fic and one other, so it might occasionally be a bit of a gap between updates. Anyhow, thanks for all the kind reviews.

For all those who asked about the whole not connected / download failed thing, please ignore that. It was a typo.

Also, Sesshoumaru is going to be in this fic, as well as Miroku and Sango, and if I can manage to finagle Shippo in I'll try to.

Sorry, I can't manage to answer all the reviews this week, but by golly thanks for reviewing anyway.

Okay, here we go!

* * *

Koga Takashi believed, very firmly, in casual Fridays. After all, he always said, if they weren't an official part of Taisho Corp (Taisho paid all his more questionable employees under the table), then they didn't have to dress in the official Taisho Corp dress code.

Kikyo thought that hiking gear, however, was overdoing it. The man took a water bottle from his vest, and took a long drink before turning towards her. "Ah." He murmured. "Miss Higashi. I trust your meeting with our mutual employer went well."

The young girl nodded sharply, keeping her tone strait and professional. "Yes sir."

"He is aware of the situation, correct?" Kouga asked, hooking water bottle back to a metal buckle.

"He is now, sir." She paused for just a moment. "He didn't seem terribly surprised sir."

Koga nodded, and leaned back in the large cushioned chair that sat in his office. "I don't doubt that. He probably knew about it within five minutes." He raised one eyebrow. "He keeps very close tabs on everything down here. Cameras everywhere except the bathrooms."

Kikyo started slightly, suddenly remembering maybe a dozen idle comments against the higher ups made casually to a friend when no-one was looking. She struggled to keep her outer, placid shell. "He's a very disarming man." She commented, just to cut out the awkward silence.

Koga nodded. "Has eyes that shoot strait through ya, doesn't he. It's the golden contacts that do it."

Kikyo nodded, the man's words echoing her own thoughts. Those golden eyes had seemed to stare through her as if she was a window. He had been looking at the wall behind her for the entire conversation.

"However," Koga continued, cracking his knuckles. "I have received a call from our higher up, with special orders for you."

The young programmer took a deep breath, and waited for the instructions she knew were coming.

"For some odd reason, Taisho wants you to be the one to placate our client." Koga gave her an odd look. "Now I don't know what he's thinking here, because with all due respect you have the communication skills of a small, yappy dog." Kikyo scowled at him. "However, I'm gonna trust the big guy on this one, and put you on with him."

For a moment, Kikyo stood still, then nodded. "Is our client ready to be spoken with."

"He's been on hold for almost an hour," Koga chuckled. The poor girl winced. "Good luck, little lady." Her manager commented as he walked out the door. "You'll need it."

Throwing a quick glance of death at the deserter, she turned around to face the phone. The dreaded thing was sitting there, waiting placidly for her, quietly hiding the horror that hid on the other end of the line. Oh, God, how on earth was she supposed to do this? She hadn't ever been trained in talking to others. She didn't know the first thing about politics. She had stuttered up until sixth grade, for crying out loud!

Carefully, making sure her throat was cleared, she picked up the phone, and spoke into it. "Hello, this is Taisho Corp, how may I help you?"

The voice that came rasping back through the earpiece sent a chill sprinting down her spine. It was the sort of lazy, evil voice that made you feel sticky inside after hearing it. Kikyo instantly disliked the person on the other end of the phone. "Who is this?" The voice demanded in thickly Americanized Japanese.

"This is Higashi Kikyo," The woman responded, keeping the distaste out of her voice.

There was just a moment of pause. "I would like to speak with Mr. Taisho."

Kikyo thought for just a moment. What should she say? Surely the man couldn't just talk to her boss just like that. "I'm sorry, but Mr. Taisho is unavailable right now." She paused for just a moment more. It was odd for an underling to demand to talk to as important a man as Mr. Taisho. "Who am I speaking too?" She asked suspiciously.

"This is Naraku."

Kikyo held the phone away from her mouth as she choked in surprise. It was _the _client. Damn, she had thought it was just a secretary or someone like that. Oh, _shit_! Naraku was the person shelling out the big money for their software! If Koga found out she had been talking to him as if he was a normal person, he would have her head on a silver platter with a little garnish and a baked potato.

She put the phone back against her face, wincing nervously. "Mr. Naraku, sir." She almost fell back into her high school habit of stuttering. "I must apologize for my earlier-"

"Save it." The voice said coldly. "I still wish to speak with Taisho."

Kikyo swallowed, mind racing. "I'm sorry, sir, but I'm afraid Taisho is still indisposed." Should she take a message? Put him on hold again? She didn't have any training in this. "If you would leave your complaint, I would make sure he gets it."

A low growl came through the phone, "You know perfectly well what my complaint is." The voice hissed. "I have yet to receive my software. If this situation is not remedied, then you can be expecting sever repercussions."

_Repercussions? _What did he mean by that? This time a bit of Kikyo's annoyance found it's way into her voice. "Sir, if I may remind you, this operation is not official, and legal action is therefore out of the question."

"I was referring to consequences of a less than legal sort, Miss Kikyo." The voice was cold and hard. "I need the software by the end of the week. Tell your boss that if I don't have it by then, I will be considerably less than happy." There was a click, and then a blank dial tone. Naraku had hung up.

The door cracked open, and Koga stuck his head in. "Kikyo, the big guy upstairs wants to see you again."

Kikyo turned towards him, paling just a little. She put down the phone, with the horrible feeling that she had just messed up big time in her gut. Koga smirked at her as she left the room, pulling his short pony tail over one shoulder. "Good luck, little lady…"

* * *

InuYasha was running through his confusion subroutines. His logic circuits had been maxed out, and so he had reverted to simply idly thinking about the current problem. The problem was, of course, his location. He had assembled an array of data to examine, but he couldn't find what was so wrong.

Fact: He didn't have the necessary hardware. His code clearly provided for sensory input. He couldn't see, such as it was, and hearing was out too. Those were two very important things he was supposed to be able to do. He needed to get some sort of apparatus to receive sound and visuals, but how was he supposed to be able to get those if he couldn't even move? He was completely limited to this system…

Fact: He was missing valuable software. This computer he was on, despite all the modifications he was able to make, didn't have everything he needed to function properly. It didn't have the voice simulation software necessary for him to even speak, and the graphics processor of this system had set his default visual to a cute little icon with a set of already made frames. In short, he was limited to a silly little expressions and text words.

Fact: The system itself wasn't suited to him. Moving around this computer was cumbersome. He wasn't designed to have to process data like he was doing now. All this data was supposed to be handled automatically, without bothering his main consciousness. Instead, he was having to do all the processing manually. It was a major pain in the ass…

Fact: He was missing all identity files. His install routine had informed him that all the servers he needed to get files from were completely unavailable at the time of his installation. Granted, he hadn't been online at the time of installation, but a quick check to the computer's parameters told him that even if it had been online, it wouldn't have been allowed into the area's he needed anyway.

Fact: The system's owner, the girl named Kagome, had no idea who he was, nor what he had been created for. She was just as clueless as he was.

Fact: The girl's internet files were highly suspicious. They didn't really contain anything out of the ordinary, but that really wasn't what bothered him. The fact was they weren't all there. Whatever this girl did online, she was hiding it very well, and it was very hard to hide something from a program like InuYasha. He could only assume she was into some less than scrupulous stuff.

Conclusion: He very definitely wasn't supposed to be on this type of system. Perhaps he was even stolen merchandise, or maybe it was just a fluke. Either way, it was a serious problem.

Suggested Solution: He would modify the current system until it suited his needs better. But to do that any further, he would need the help of that girl… Kagome.

She had said she was going to a place called 'school,' which InuYasha had managed to define as "A noun, pronounced 'Skool' meaning a place of instruction, normally reserved for younger members of the population. See also: Academy, University, Institution."

Well, he would have to wait until she got home, then he could start seeing what he could scrounge up.

* * *

Terri and Kagome were a comical pair. Kagome was petite, with medium length black tresses and an ever smiling face that still hadn't lost all of its childishness. She was well dressed, respectful, and ever polite. Next to Terri, she looked like a little nun.

Terri was all legs and arms, and seemed to hang in space like a marionette, always loose and always smug. If her strings were ever cut, it was likely that she'd just fall to the floor and lay there like a piece of string. She was also scarily tall, standing higher then most of the boys in their class at a solid six foot. Her face had matured faster than the rest of her, the sultry, almost arrogant smirk her mouth was eternally twisted in belied the rest of her body, which had only just begun to develop all the happy curves that womanhood entailed. That irresistible face was the only reason the boys overlooked that the rest of her was coming out of the phase where it most resembled an extremely flat stick. Not that her figure was terribly obvious: she was almost eternally garbed in a baggy black T-shirt with the sleeves ripped off, and gothic sable pants with streamers and stretches of cloth hanging off every available space. A red triangle was tattooed on her left cheek, and her eyes were stained a deep amethyst by her contacts. Her strawberry blonde hair hadn't been cut since fifth grade, and hung all the way to her knees in huge, lank, unruly chunks.

"So…" The tall girl demanded, draping limply across one of the raised cement walls that held the gardens in front of Kagome's apartment building in place. "What exactly did you want to talk to me about?"

Kagome beamed at her, crossing her arms. "I tried installing that software we got last night."

Terri leaned forward, interested. "Oh really?" She asked, her voice suddenly a husky alto. "Something good?"

The younger of the pair put a finger to her lips, a surefire signal that she was thinking of how to respond. "He's useful." She admitted.

"_He_" Terri asked. "Kagome, what exactly is it?"

Kagome grinned, and motioned for the girl to follow her. "You'll have to see it to believe it."

A quick elevator ride and a conversation with Kagome's mom later, and the two girls were sitting in the girlish bedroom. Terri shuddered just a little, a motion that started with her body and slowly spread out to her spider-like limbs. "Your bed creeps me out, Kag…" She muttered, and hid behind a curtain of her own hair.

Kagome glanced at the pink comforter, and grinned. Terri _loathed _pink with an unbelievable passion. "Deal with it." She muttered, and pointed at her computer. "Go ahead, turn it on."

Terri, face still behind a mass of hair, scuttled over to the computer, and glared at the console for just a moment. "Kagome, your computer's on already."

Kagome scurried up beside her, glancing at the monitor. Sure enough, it was sitting there, displaying her desktop proudly. That was odd. Kagome _never _forgot to turn her computer off. She glared at it, but sat down anyway, deciding not to worry. She hadn't gotten a good night's sleep, so she had probably just missed it when she had left for school. She turned to Terri, and grinned. "Watch this." With that, she typed a quick phrase into the computer.

_'Kagome?' _The text floated up onto the screen, _'Izzat you?' _

Terri leaned forward, reading the text with a raised eyebrow. "Terri, meet InuYasha." Kagome said with a deep satisfaction in her voice. She leaned forward, and typed more, speaking slowly aloud for her friends benefit as she did so. "InuYasha, this is my friend Terri."

There was a pause, and then more text appeared. _'Terri?' _He demanded, _'Keh, what a stupid name?' _

Terri blinked, and glared at Kagome. "Your computer just made fun of my name."

Kagome nodded. "Yeah, he does that from time to time." She muttered.

"He?"

_'Hey, wench.' _The text read. _'Don't keep me waiting. I can't see, remember?' _

The black haired girl sighed, and rolled her eyes. She typed something into the computer once more.

_'I'll call you wench as much as I want.' _The text read. _'Now send your friend home, I need to talk to you.' _

Kagome's eyes widened, and she crossed her arms. "Sorry," She apologized to her friend. "He gets snippy sometimes."

"I'm sorry, Kagome, but what exactly is 'he?'" Terri demanded, also crossing her arms.

Kagome's grin was reminiscent of the Cheshire Cat. "You remember our little Hanyou.Exe that we got last night?" She asked eagerly.

Terri nodded slowly.

The younger knocked on the monitor, smiling. "It was an AI."

One of Terri's eyebrows raised. "Get out."

_'Kagome, wench!' _The text appeared, italicized in annoyance. _'hurry up and type something, dammit! Tell me what's going on!' _

The other eyebrow went up to. "You're serious, aren't you?"

Kagome nodded, and typed another quick response to InuYasha to assure him that she was still alive.

Terri was instantly jockeying for a seat on the small, uncomfortable chair, shoving Kagome out of the seat with a swing of her hips. "Move it." She growled. "I get to talk to him for a little while."

Kagome leaned over her shoulder, watching her type. "Ask him if he can set it up so I can see what your typing, too." She instructed.

Terri typed a few lines into the console, and InuYasha responded almost instantly.

_'Which one is this, dammit?' _The text demanded, _'Izzit Kagome, or that stupid Terri girl?' _

Terri giggled. "Outspoken, isn't he?" She glanced closer at the screen. "Does he have any cool visuals?"

Kagome nodded. "He has a little head he can display, but he doesn't like to, because he says it looks dumb."

Terri glanced at the screen. "Anyway, lessee what he can do…" She muttered, and typed some more into the computer.

_'This is Terri' _She typed, her text appearing at the top of the screen in blue. _'Are you really AI?' _

Kagome winced. She really shouldn't have asked that.

_'Dammit, didn't you talk to Kagome at all. I don't wanna have to go over all of this again!' _InuYasha's text appeared angrily. _'Ask her if you got questions about me.' _

"Touchy touchy…" Terri muttered, leaning forward. "What all can he do?"

Kagome shrugged. "Well, he speeds everything up like mad, and he can weasel his way into just about any part of my system, so he's pretty useful."

Terri winked at her. "Have you seen what he can do online yet?"

"I'm a little worried about that." The younger girl admitted. "Suppose he's got some programming to send info back to the company we stole him from? We'd be busted as soon as I logged on."

The elder nodded pensively, casually ignoring InuYasha's demands for someone to tell him what was going on. "Good point, but we could check that." She muttered. She turned back to the computer. _'InuYasha could we see your code?' _She typed, not bothering with punctuation.

InuYasha's text suddenly paused for just a moment. _'Excuse me?' _It read finally.

_'Need to check something.' _Terri typed authoritatively. _'Need to see your code.' _

Another pause, this one just a bit longer. _'You want to see my code?' _The text finally demanded. _'My programming?' _

_'yes' _Terri typed while rolling her eyes.

The longest pause out of all of them. Then finally, _'Are you CRAZY, bitch?' _The text was big and angry. _'You're a real pervert, you know that!' _And suddenly the screen saver kicked in, a swirl of psychedelic color.

Terri blinked at the screen, then turned to Kagome. "You think I might have offended him?" She asked uncertainly.

Kagome nodded. She hadn't been expecting a reaction like that, certainly, although from her conversations with the program last night she had figured out just how tempermental he could be. She reached forward, and wiggled the mouse, to see if she could bring it out of the screen saver. No such luck. The program was sulking.

The girl shrugged, and turned to her friend. "I dunno." She muttered. "We probably can't do anything if he doesn't let us…"

Terri swore under her breath, and leaned back in the chair. "Great…" She muttered. "Now what?"

Kagome looked around her room, and pointed at her pink bed. "I suppose we could do each others hair?"

Terri shuddered. "Don't even joke about that!"

It was maybe an hour after Kagome's friend left that InuYasha came out of his shell. Kagome, sitting on her bed and working her way through a copy of _Wuthering Heights_ for English class when the screen saver shut down. She instantly put aside her book, and scurried over to the screen.

_'Hey Kagome, is the stupid girl gone yet?' _Was the message.

Kagome felt just a little twinge of annoyance. That 'stupid girl' was her friendm after all.

_'That was really rude, InuYasha.' _She typed, annoyed expression on her face.

_'I was the rude one?' _The text demanded, this time InuYasha's little face popped up on the screen along with it, looking furious. _'I'm not the one who goes around asking to see other people's codes! How would you feel if I asked to see your code?' _

_'I don't have code.' _Kagome pointed out, typing primly.

InuYasha's little face looked put out. _'Fine.' _He said. _'then how would you feel if some stranger told you to take off all your clothes and let him touch whatever he wanted?' _

Okay, now _that _struck just a little closer to home. _'Ahh.' _The girl typed, blushing madly. _'I get it.' _

_'Yeah.' _The text read, InuYasha's face dry. _'Anyway, she's gone right?' _

_'Yes.' _The girl typed. _'But try being nice next time she comes over, okay?' _

_'Whatever,' _The little face had returned to a state of boredom. _'Anyway, there's some stuff I wanna ask you…' _

_'What?' _

_'I need some stuff.' _InuYasha typed. _'But I can't get it on my own.' _

Kagome raised one eyebrow, crossing her arms. _'What kind of stuff?' _

_'I need some hardware, and I wouldn't mind some software too…' _

_'Specifically?' _

There was a short pause. _'A high resolution optical and audio input device, a high powered graphics card, and if possible some sort of audio output software.' _

Okay… Kagome what exactly did all that mean? _'In English?' _

_'I can't see, hear, talk, or show any decent visuals.' _InuYasha's face looked annoyed. _'My code says that I should be able to do all that, but I can't.' _

Kagome nodded. That made a bit more sense. _'So, what is it that you need?' _

The face put on a look of disbelief. _'I just told you, idiot. If you aren't smart enough, you could just put me online, and I could probably find everything I need.' _

Suspicion crept slowly into Kagome's mind. Would he be able to rummage around online as well as he could on her computer? And even if he could manage the online world, who was to say that he wouldn't go off reporting to the company that made him as soon as she let him out.

_'How do I know I can trust you?' _Kagome typed. _'you might go off broadcasting my computer to any hacker in range…' _

InuYasha's little face lifted one eyebrow. _'Excuse me?' _He demanded. _'If you ask me, you're the last person to be worried about hackers.' _

Kagome froze for a moment, then leaned back down to the computer. _'What do you mean?' _

_'I peeked at your internet files, girly.' _The face did a silent chuckle. _'You seem pretty suspicious yourself.' _

Okay… so he knew she was a hacker. _'And what are you going to do about it?' _

_'Why should I need to do anything about it?' _InuYasha asked. _'Just hurry up and get me online so I can get my stuff." _

Kagome raised one eyebrow. _'You promise you won't do anything bad?' _

'_You'll have to trust me on this one, okay?' _The face had an arrogant smirk. _'Or are ya too scared?' _

Kagome smiled just a little. Was that a challenge?

_'You got it.' _She typed, and plugged in the little wire that connected her computer to the rest of the world.

A vaguely evil expression drifted onto the programs little face. _'Beauty…' _

_Verifying connection…_

_Dialing 872 – 5763…_

_Connecting…_

_Verifying username and password…_

_Registering computer on the network…_

_Connected…_

And InuYasha dove off into the infinite expanse of cyber space.


	4. Watched

Gah, sorry this took so long to get up, but broken computers will do that to you. If there's any moral to my stories, its this: Mountain Dew + CDroms drives equalsnot good things.

Anywho, despite almost going three hundred dollars into dept, I also had a nasty bastich of a programming assignment to do, thus the late chapter.

Anywho, I'm gonna give some quick comments to you people, and then give you want you really want. Thanks!

The Masked Mistress: Hehe, yeah, InuYasha's going to rock when he comes into his prime in this fic, but I can't really tell everything, so just be patient. I'll get to it eventually.

Fantastical Queen Ebony Black: Don't worry, Miroku and Sango are both going to be coming in soon. Sango, however, is going to have a very different role than Terri. She should be here within the next two chapters.

TheFanaticInTraining: Whoa! Monster review of all destruction! Hehe, thanks for all the compliments. I am in fact a relatively 'computery' person, but I try to keep it simple enough for the technologically inept to understand. And yes, I was wondering if anyone would notice the three MB download in three seconds thing, and there is a reason for that. I'll get to it later. Thanks for all your kind words! Thanks!

Everyone Else: Thanks for all your compliments! I love you all! Hugs

Oh, and one quick note, the actual name of this fic is Hanyou.EXE, not HanyouEXE. There's supposed to be a dot there. It's just wont allow periods in fic titles.

Anywho, on with the fic!

* * *

Kikyo was, for lack of any better words, screwed beyond all belief.

The elevator ride up to Taisho's office was a long, lonely sojourn, seeming to take hours.

She was fired, of that she was sure. There was no way employment would continue after that phone call. She had just completely ruined Taisho Corp's relationship with the American contractor. She had all but insulted Naraku directly, and had certainly hurt any deal that might have been reached with him.

She was walking into certain unemployment.

No, even worse than that. She had worked in Mr. Taisho's underground operations for almost three years now, since she was eighteen. She knew just about every secret Taisho Corp had. Was she going to be allowed to walk away with all that information? Of coarse not.

She was walking into certain death.

The elevator arrived at the appointed floor of the building, twenty four, and gave a little ring like a church bell. The heavy metal doors slid open like a gothic iron gate, revealing the long road to her own personal Golgotha.

Almost numbly, she stepped out of the elevator, and walked down the hall, one foot slipping in front of the other. She reached the Mr. Taisho's office after what seemed an eternity in purgatory. Lifting one pale hand, the girl rapped on the door.

After just a moment, the response came: "Come in." Blunt and direct.

She cracked the door, and sidled in, hands clasped in front of her grey business skirt.

Mr. Taisho was sitting at his desk, inspecting his computer. He didn't seem to notice her in the slightest. She waited a suitable amount of time for him to look up, but he showed no sign of removing his eyes from the monitor. As softly as she could possibly manage, she lifted her hand to her mouth and cleared her throat.

Taisho glanced up, and raised an eyebrow. "Can I help you?" He asked, expression genuinely curious.

Kikyo almost gaped, but stopped herself just in time. "Y-you asked to see me sir?" She stuttered.

"Did I?" The man asked, cocking his head to the side. "I don't remember…" He glanced more closely at her, then his expression brightened. "Ah, yes! Miss Kikyo, welcome!" He rose from his seat, nodding to her.

The girl looked down on t looked down to the floor. "What was it you wanted to see me about, sir?" She asked softly.

The man shook his head, his strong features smiling. "Don't be so formal." He commented, patting the back of his chair. "Come, have a seat."

Teh girl looked up sharply What was that? Kikyo had come up to get fired, but here she was being invited to sit in her boss's chair? There had to be some sort of mistake.

Taisho patted again, eyes still fixed on her.

Then again, maybe it was better to follow orders. She stiffly moved behind the desk, and eased herself down into the chair, not knowing what to expect.

The chair itself was heavenly. It was heavily padded everywhere, and both the back and the seat gave gently under her weight, cushioning her into a nice, fluffy heaven.

"Comfy?" Taisho asked politely.

"Yes sir." Kiyo answered as honestly as possible.

"Wonderful." The man said, quite near the side of her head. "Now listen to this." He leaned forward and hit a button on his keyboard.

'_Hello, this is Taisho Corp, how may I help you?' _

Kikyo's heart skipped a beat as she recognized her own voice.

'_Who is this?' _

The second voice belonged to Naraku. Oh, god, it was the phone call. _Her _phone call. Her breathing started coming harder, and she stared strait forward with a grim sense of horror.

"Miss Kikyo…" Taisho began, slowly walking around the desk to face her, speaking over the recording. "Are you aware of how very insulting you sounded in this given conversation?"

Kikyo nodded, listening to her own voice inform Naraku that he couldn't talk to Mr. Taisho. Her voice sounded infinitely more derisive than she had thought shehad beenspeaking. She started wringing her hands in her lap. "Yes, sir." Her voice sounded pathetically miserable.

"And are you aware that up until now Mr. Naraku has been one ofthe leading buyers of our AI software?" Taisho pressed on, his voice becoming harsher.

Kikyo's heart was hammering in her chest, and her hands tightening till her knuckles went white. "Yes sir."

"You must, therefore, know that if Naraku was to become dissatisfied with our services we will lose a large source of revenue?" Taisho demanded of her, pacing across the office.

Oh, god, she was gonna die… "Yes, sir…" She whispered.

"And are you aware what will happen to you if you caused our relationship with Naraku to turn sour?" Taisho asked, this time his voice dangerously quite.

"I am aware of that, sir." Kikyo squeaked, barely audible. Oh god, oh god, oh god...

Taisho glared at her for a moment. "What do you have to say for yourself, then?"

Somethign snapped suddenly, and the girl's hands slammed down against the desk. She rose furiously to her feet. "I told you I wasn't trained to do that sort of thing, dammit!" She yelled at him, face flushed.

Taisho raised one eyebrow at her, and crossed his arms.

Kikyo, horrified, fell back down into the chair, eyes fixed on the powerful man. What the hell had she been thinking? Oh, god… she was dead. She was gonna die. She really didn't want to die.

Taisho leaned forward, glared at her with his eerie amber eyes, reached forward slowly.

Kikyo scrambled backwards away from the hand, half falling out of the chair. She let out a fearful whimper, raising one hand to defend herself, but the blow she was expecting never came. Instead, the man hit a little red button on the phone near her desk. "Koga?" He said into the phone.

"Yes sir?" Koga's confident voice came back over the intercom.

"Please begin moving Miss Higashi's things from her cubicle to her new office."

Kikyo blinked. Had she just heard correctly? That didn't sound right for some reason… "S-sir?" She stuttered.

The manglanced up. "Congratulations on your promotion, Miss Kikyo."

"Promotion?" Kikyo gaped. "What… umm…" She sank deep into the cushioned chair. "Huh?"

Taisho smiled slyly, clicking his fingers on the desk. "I just gave you a promotion," he remarked, seeming to enjoy her astonishment. "You see, Koga does a wonderful job handling the business end of things in our…" He paused for just a moment. "How shall we say… less _scrupulous_ endeavors, he doesn't have the know-how to make sure all my technical staff are working to the best of their abilities. Therefore, you are going to serve as the director and chief of our AI programming divisions."

This wasn't happening. This _couldn't _be happing. She was supposed to be dead right now. She had ruined a relationship with a valued client! This didn't make any sense!

"But," she sputtered, shaking her head, "why?"

Taisho raised one thin eyebrow. "You don't want the promotion?" He asked, seemingly surprised.

The little red lights started going off in Kikyo's head, yelling at her to look grateful. She shook her head vigorously, rising from the chair and darting from behind the desk. "No, sir," she blurted out in a jumble. "I mean, yes! I want the promotion! Thank you sir!"

The man's eyebrow arched even further, lips curling off to one side. "Well, let's hope I didn't just make a mistake, hmm?" He didn't sound terrible convinced. "Now, you have a department to run, so you should get downstairs and start working, don't you think?"

Kikyo, feeling almost like a yes-man, nodded again. "Right," she said sharply, and began heading out towards the door.

"Oh, and Miss Kikyo?" Taisho called after her, bringing her up short. She turned around again, blinking. The man was once again seated at his desk, and looked very formidable in his chair. "What is the current project the programming division is working on?"

"An expansion on our Hanyou project, sir. A program we're calling Youkai.EXE," Kikyo answered automatically, not bothering to think about the question.

"Excellent," Taisho grinned at her from around the desk. "I want it done by the end of the week, okay?"

Kikyo's eyes bugged out of her head. By the end of the _week_? They barely had it eighty percent done! "But Sir…" She started, shaking her head. "There's no way-"

Taisho held up a hand. "I would advise you to have it finished by the end of the week, Miss Kikyo," the man said evenly. "If I were you, I wouldn't want to make Naraku any angrier than he already is."

His smile was that same, knowing, half comical grin, and his weird eyes simply stared at her until she simply nodded, and eased herself out of the office.

* * *

'_InuYasha?' _

'_Yeah?' _

'_Remind me why we're here again?' _

'_We're checking out webcams, remember?' _

Kagome sighed, and rubbed her temples, cheeks flushed with embarrassment. _'InuYasha, this site doesn't actually sell webcams.' _

'_The hell are you talking about, wench?' _The text on her screen demanded derisively. _'This site is loaded with stuff about webcams.' _

Kagome rolled her eyes, and tried to avoid looking at anything on the monitor but InuYasha's text. _'Yes, but this website still doesn't sell webcams.' _

'_Oh, yeah?' _InuYasha jeered. _'I bet we could get one of the girls on here to sell her webcam.'_

Kagome rolled her eyes. "They'd sell you something…" She muttered, face turning red. If her mom came in and found her on a site like this, then her beloved computer would end up in the trash faster than she could blink. _'Listen, InuYasha, the girls on this site are not interested in selling their webcams. Their webcams are their main source of income. They are only interested in selling shows to horny guys, okay? Now can we leave now?' _

There was a short pause before InuYasha responded. _'Well they have really good resolution, see?' _A picture maximized itself on her screen, sure enough, it did have wonderful resolution. Kagome wasn't sure she had ever seen so much silicone in one place.

_'InuYasha, just get off the site, NOW!' _Kagome typed angrily.

_'Fine, fine.' _InuYasha typed back. _'You'd have to be pretty pathetic to have to meet a girl through the internet anyway.' _

The window closed, and was quickly replaced by another, this one not quite so risqué. This site, on the other hand, seemed quite intent on selling computer based cameras, as opposed to thepeople who use them. Kagome was amazed at how easy surfing the net was with InuYasha. He could just pour through one site after another, without bothering her computers processing power. All Kagome had to see was the useful (and sometimes indecent) stuff.

InuYasha's little face appeared next to one of the cameras for sale, and smiled. _'Hey Kagome, what about this one?' _The text read. _'It looks like just what I need.' _

Kagome glanced over the specs, and nodded speculatively. It had a good resolution, a very high frame per second rate, and the ability to auto track, meaning InuYasha could probably move the camera enough to actually be able to look around. Then she glanced at the price: ouch. InuYasha apparently noticed the same thing she did, at almost the same time.

'_Kinda pricey, though. I bet we can find something better.' _The little face looked somewhat disappointed, though.

Kagome shook her head, and chuckled. _'InuYasha, your forgetting that I stole you,' _she reminded him. _'I make it a policy to never pay for anything online, okay? Now, just sit back and watch me work.' _

The face lifted one eyebrow, and grinned in approval. _'Okay, wench, show me what you can do.' _

Smiling slightly, the thrill settling in one again, Kagome hunkered down to look at the screen. It didn't look like this was an _alone _sort of job: she would need some help. _'Hold on, InuYasha…' _She typed. _'I'm going to go call someone.' _

_'Whatever´_ the response written on the screen read.

Kagome swept over towards her dresser, snatched up the phone, and quickly dialed up Terri. After just a few rings, the phone picked up. "Hello?" Terri's voice echoed into the phone like a siren's. "Lorensen residence."

"Hey, Terri," Kagome chirped into the phone happily, messing up her hair just a bit as she talked. She made it a strict policy to never go into a hack job with neat hair. "You feel like stealing something for me?"

It was a few seconds before the girl responded. "What do you have in mind?"

"Well, I'm trying to set up InuYasha with some extra hardware," she explained. "But the bits I need are really expensive, so…"

There was a pause. "He came out of his little shell since I left, did he?" Terri asked. "And what does he need?"

Kagome was silent for a moment. "A webcam..." She said finally, slightly embarrassed. After all, they both knew what they were used for most of the time.

Terri chuckled. "Ooookay?" Terri muttered. "No comment there. So are we talking now, or later tonight?"

Kagome reached into her skirt pocket, pulled out her gloves, and pulled them on. "Now," she said into the reciever. "I'm already at my computer, so hurry up, would ya?" She sat down in front of her screen, and began typing again.

_'What's going on?' _InuYasha asked, his little eyes blinking in curiosity. _'Are we gonna get the camera?' _

Kagome grinned, "The site isCameraKingdom dot net,kay Terri?" She muttered into the phone, "Get there fast." She turned towards the keyboard, and began typing to InuYasha._ 'I've called up Terri, okay, and she's gonna help us out.' _

_'Terri?' _The program demanded. _'That pervert? Why do we need her?' _

_'Well, for starters, she has a high speed connection, and what we're about to do requires speed.' _Kagome wrote.

"Kagome, go ahead and get set up," Terri's voice rang in her ear. "I'll be ready by the time your done with your part. Gimme a signal when it's time."

"Right." Kagome nodded, and put the phone on her desk, hunkering down over the computer. _'InuYasha, can you be quiet for just a second?' _She typed. _'I'm going to need to concentrate for a little while?' _

The face looked sulky. _'What'cha gonna do?' _

Kagome input a few commands, bringing up an extra window, and then returned her attention to InuYasha. _'Watch carefully. This little window tells me when someone clicks on the link to buy the camera, and when it goes off I tell Terri.' _She put in a few more commands, bringing the window into focus. _'When I give Terri the signal, she snatches the purchase information in mid-transaction, and changes the address to ship to too mine.' _She grinned, leaning back. It had taken her and Terri a while to figure out how to do that routine. They were very proud of it.

_'Well what happens when the person buying finds out that they didn't get the product?' _The program responded immediately, one eyebrow lifted. _'Won't the company find out when they complain?' _

Kagome shrugged. _'True, but that's what E-mail is for. As soon as I get the camera, I'll mail the customer service of the company, saying that I got a package that wasn't supposed to go to me, but I've already opened the packaging and voided the warranty. Ninety percent of the time, they'll let me keep the product.' _

The program didn't respond for several minutes, but eventually spoke up again: _'Not bad,' _the program admitted, _'Looks like you aren't as useless as I thought you were. I might manage to get what I want within the century.' _

Kagome scowled at her computer, thinking less than polite thoughts at the program. _'Listen, you little ingrate!' _She typed, preparing to give him an earful.

_'Hey, stupid, someone's about to buy. You'd better watch your little window.' _The program interrupted, the little face smirking at her.

She blinked and glanced up at her window. Nothing there… was the little bastard trying to be smart with her? _'Nothing there, InuYasha,'_ She typed sarcastically.

_'Just wait.' _The program responded. _'There's someone else in this server, and he's checking off some specifications on it. He'll buy it soon.' _Kagome gaped, eyes widening. _'Oooh, he's going with the hi-res option. Goody goody.' _

What the- He could see what other people were doing on the site? _'InuYasha, since when could you look at other people's computers?' _She hammered on the keyboard.

_'You don't think very much, do you?' _The program typed back at her, face derisive. _'I'm a program, remember? I see things in terms of code. The Website's source-code is changing, and I can read that to find out what other people are doing.' _

Kagome's gape slowly turned into the grin. It was like she had just won the lottery for hackers. Oh, god! This would completely revolutionize her world. The sheer amounts of stuff she could do with a talent like that boggled her mind.

_'Kagome, you'd better get ready. Here one comes.'_

Sure enough, the little window she had set up suddenly started flashing some data at her. She snatched up the phone, and spoke into it. "Terri, we've got one. Get ready."

"Right," her friend's voice echoed back, dripping with predatory hunger. "Call you back when I'm done."

"Right." Kagome hit the off button on the phone, and went back to her console. _'InuYasha, are you telling me you can tell what people are doing on this site, right now?' _She typed quickly, heart quickening. _'You can tell what everyone's doing?' _

'_Slow down, wench,'_ the software wrote back at her. _'I can pretty well tell what's going on if I look at one aspect of the code, but if I try to look at the entire thing my circuits practically fry. I can only do so much.' _

'_Can you find Terri?' _Kagome typed. _'She'll be hard to find because of her security, but she's here somewhere.'_

'_Gimme a second.'_ The text read, and didn't respond for a few seconds. _'I think I've found her. Why do you ask?' _

Kagome wasn't sure she liked how fast InuYasha had found her friend. _'Can you tell if anybody's looking at her? You know, trying to find out what she's up to?' _

_'Heh, I can do better than that, wench,' _InuYasha typed back at her. _'Watch this.' _

Kagome watched: nothing happened.

_'What did you do?' _She typed, confused.

_'If anyone was looking at her, they aren't anymore.' _The program typed back, the little face looking proud. _'I disguised what she was doing as part of the websites basic function.' _

Kagome found herself gaping for what seemed like the eighteenth time that day. Oh, dear lord, she had stumbled upon the goose that laid the golden egg. If what he was saying was true, he had managed to completely hide Terri. Someone would look at her, and think she was just a normal browser. All her activities would look completely normal, or wouldn't be connected to her at all. It was like winning three lotteries in a row. She was practically drooling.

_'How did I ever live without you?' _She typed dreamily.

_'You're so stupid I wonder how you even stay alive now,' _InuYasha wrote back.

Okay, maybe he wasn't all that great, but still pretty cool. She would definitely have to inform Terri about this. Speaking of Terri: Kagome reached out, and snatched the phone off the desk a split second before it rang. "Hey, Terri," Kagome muttered without even bothering to check who it was.

"Hey, Kag," Terri's laughing voice echoed back through the phone. "Mission accomplished. The thing should arrive at your house within the week, kay?"

Kagome nodded happily, and passed that information on to InuYasha. He didn't give much of a response, but his face revealed that he was pleased too. "Sweet." Kagome muttered. "I'll take care of the rest, thanks."

"No problem." Terri chuckled back. "And tell that stuck up program of yours that he better be nicer to me next time I come over, okay?"

Kagome decided not to mention that line to her easily annoyed program. "He thinks you're a pervert, you know." She mentioned.

Terri just scoffed. "You should just delete him, you know."

Kagome shrugged. "I dunno, he's pretty useful," she admitted, "like, he… can…" She trailed off, glancing at the screen of her computer. "Terri, I'll call you back, okay?"

"Kagome, what's going-" Kagome hung up, and tossed the phone aside, still looking at the screen.

The single line of text read: _'Kagome, someone's watching us.' _

"Shit!" She swore aloud, leaning down towards the screen, glaring at it furiously. _'What do you mean someone's watching us?' _She typed swiftly, fingers flying over the screen.

_'There's been another user following us around,' _the program responded. _'I thought it might have just been coincidence these past few sites, but he just showed up on this one. And he's just sitting there, not doing anything. I'm pretty sure he's been shadowing us since we logged in.' _

Kagome swore again, and started checking her security nets, looking for anything weird. _'InuYasha, I can't find anything,' _she typed. _'Are you sure?' _

_'Trust me on this one, Kagome,' _InuYasha responded. _'I'm trying to find out where he's coming from now.' _

Find out where he was coming from? How the hell was InuYasha goign to do that? Her best security couldn't even pick the intruder up!

_'It's some server based in Japan.' _InuYasha typed. _'But he's onto me, and I can't get a fix on him anymore.' _A few more seconds passed. _'He's gone.' _

Kagome let out a breath. _'What did you do?' _She typed, thumping a fist on her chest to get her heat going again. _'How could you tell he was following us?' _

There was a pause. _'Intuition I guess,' _the program responded finally. _'I had noticed the same computer address on every site we had been to today. I thought it was coincidence for a little while, but then I decided he was definitely looking for us when he showed up on the last site. And after that, I dunno, I just… sorta… chased him.' _

Kagome nodded numbly. _'Right… but how?' _

Another pause. _'I dunno. It was instinctive, I guess.' _

The girl shook her head, and rubbed her temples. What the hell had she gotten herself, here? This thing could sift through websites like a bloodhound, and after a few days on the internet, he do stuff that she had never dreamed. He had just gone through a frickin' high speed chase in cyberspace!

_'He's gone now, though,' _the program typed dismissively. _'And I'll know him if he comes back, so let's go ahead and look for the next thing we need, okay?' _

_Kagome nodded slowly. 'Yeah, let's do that.' _


	5. One Week Later

Okay, sorry this is late, but a five page analysis of Wuthering Heights, will do that to ya.

Anywho, I'm going to go and answer some of your reviews, and then you can read some stuff:

CAMintmier: Heeeee… Thanks for all the kind words! And Miroku and Sango will be coming into this, probably within the next two chapters. And you just may be onto something with the chat-room thing. Hehehe. Thinks evil ideas

The Masked Mistress: What will InuYasha think of Kagome when he first sees her? Ehehehehe… Just read an find out. Bwehehehehe.

Save Trees… Whip your bum with an owl: I actually prefer woodchucks to owls.

Fantastical Queen Ebony Black: Thanks for all the little comments. I'm trying to make Kikyo into what I think she was like before she was revived, back when she was still a Miko in training, so She's probably never going to be as nasty as she was in the series.

TheFanaticInTraining: Yeah, another gigantic review of all destruction! Anywho, InuTaisho was the name of InuYasha's dad, so I figured it would be an appropriate name for the name of their creator. Kagome's computer runs on windows, but she's modded it herself, as will be seen in this chapter. And yes, Kagome does have an extra phone line for her computer.

Tama-Chan: Actually, I know next to nothing about hacking. I'm making almost everything up from scratch… As far as you know… Ahem In other news, if you notice stuff missing out of your bank account, I have nothing to do with it.

Everyone else: Wootage! Thanks for all the kind words! You all get free bacon-cheeseburgers!

And now, the chappy!

* * *

One week. One long, harsh, sleepless week.

Kikyo, though baffled by her new position, prided herself in thinking that she had thrown herself into it with a fervor that would have made the greatest of workaholics need a nap. She hadn't seen anything but the inside of the Taisho Corp building since her promotion, and she had developed a sudden addiction of Turkish coffee. But somehow, someway, she had managed to get it done. Thanks to a hardworking crew (or at least, a crew that was afraid of layoffs), Youkai.EXE was complete in perfect time, ready to be executed.

The woman leaned back against the wall of the elevator, taking a deep, concentrated breath, clearing her head. She had to present the finished product to Taisho today, so she wanted to make a good impression. She was dressed in her best black business skirt and coat with a pristine white oxford shirt underneath, her hair tied up in a tight bun on her head.

The elevator arrived at it's destination with a friendly little _ding_, and Kikyo stepped off briskly, walking down the now somewhat familiar hall, two files clasped tightly under her arm. The plain, oak door to Taisho's office was closed, as usual, and she rapped on it lightly, waiting for admittance.

"Come in, Kikyo," Taisho's voice was muffled from behind the door. Of coarse he knew who she was, she had been coming to give the man status reports every day at this time for the past week. He was expecting her.

She pushed open the door, and walked in, nodding politely at her boss. "Good evening, sir," she said calmly, walking towards the center of the room.

Taisho, holding up what looked like a martini, nodded at her, and gestured towards a chair opposite his desk. "Please take a seat, Miss Kikyo."

Graciously Kikyo sat down in the chair, noting with some satisfaction that it was of the same quality as the chair he sat in. She gently took one of her folders, and put it on the desk. "These are some files that you might want to look at, sir." She said, getting straight down to business. "They have all the specifications on Youkai.EXE."

Taisho picked up the file, and looked through a few of the sheets of paper in them as if they were outlandish barnyard tools. "I see…" He said, a little halfheartedly. "Would you go over them for me?"

Kikyo nodded graciously, expecting this. She had been shocked at how technologically unaware Taisho actually was. At first he had certainly looked like he had known what he was doing, but the girl had later found that it was all the work of his exceptionally well trained secretary. He seemed to not be able to use anything but a word processor and E-mail. It was almost embarrassing to have to have to work for someone as inept as he was.

"As you can see from figure one," she started, pointing out the figure on the paper for her boss's benefit, "the Youkai AI is an enhanced version of our Hanyou prototype. We have enhanced the coding to a more efficient, thus increasing synaptic response times. In addition, the logical circuits are much more extensive, allowing for more efficient cognitive activity as well as a proneness to individual uninhibited logical decision making."

Taisho blinked slowly and nodded.

"Also, there have been some very distinct personality differences made in the source code," Kikyo pressed on. "While Hanyou was planned on being overall boorish and rather arrogant, Youkai is much calmer and quiet."

Taisho nodded again. "Right…" He said slowly, shuffling through the files. "Miss Kikyo, I'll be honest, I'm not altogether literate on all the jargon, so could you please say that again in plain Japanese?"

Kikyo gaped for just a moment, and then sighed. "Youkai is superior to Hanyou in just about every way. It is faster, more efficient, and thinks for itself even more than Hanyou does."

Taisho smiled, and clapped. "Much better. Not everyone is a programmer, Miss Kikyo. We can't all understand your techno babble," he suddenly whirled around, and looked at the plain wall behind him. "Now please stand to one side of my desk, if you would."

Kikyo, wondering what was going on, stood up and took the position he had indicated.

The man reached behind him, rapidly dialing in a number on his phone. "Tell me, Kikyo," he began, "Are you familiar with the term video-phone?"

Kikyo blinked, and then nodded. "Yes…" she said, "But the technology isn't really near completion yet. The only prototypes have been primitive… and… uh..."

Slowly, like the curtain of a great stage opening,the entire wall Taisho was facing began rolling aside, revealing a screen the size of the entire room. The girl gaped just a little, speechless, as the ring tone filled the room, vibrating the very walls. "Well, then, it's a good thing I don't know what a prototype is, isn't it?" He said as a picture suddenly blinked onto the screen.

The face of a man, light skinned, dark haired, and distinctly American looking stared at the two figures contemptuously, dark, cloudy eyes narrowed in disgust. "Do you have results for me, Taisho?" The man demanded, his accent grating. Kikyo instantly recognized it as the voice of their American contractor, Naraku. "If not, then I don't believe I need to tell you what will happen…"

Taisho shrugged. "I have something for you, Naraku," he smiled charmingly. "Your patience has paid off, you see. In this week we have managed to modify the Hanyou program we were going to give you into a much more efficient creation. This new software should serve you much better than the original would have."

Naraku let a slight, sinister smile cross his face, making him suddenly look younger than he had at the start of the conversation. Kikyo found she couldn't actually tell how old the man was. At first she had guessed late thirties, but now he seemed even younger.

"I see…" Naraku murmured, seemingly pleased. "Well either way I need it today, by twelve midnight, our time." The man hesitated for just a moment, then added with a sneer,"That would be somewhere around twelve noon, your time, in case you cannot perform math."

Taisho shrugged. "Why would I need to do math?" He asked, "I have employees to do that for me."

Kikyo felt a little snag of annoyance at that line, but decided to let it slide, and remained silent.

Naraku smiled dully at her boss, and added: "You had better get on the ball, Taisho. Time is going fast." Then the screen went blank.

Taisho sat for just a minute, then wheeled his chair around to face Kikyo again, the wall closing again behind him as if on queue. "Well, Kikyo?" Taisho raised one eyebrow at him. "You and Koga have until noon to make a very important transfer, correct? You had best get to it."

Kikyo snapped strait, and nodded vigorously. "Yes, sir," she said sharply. "We'll get right on it, sir." She paused for just a moment. "But what if it gets stolen again?"

Taisho smirked at her, and cracked his knuckles meaningfully. "It seems there was some insider help with the hanyou incident, however that has been taken care of. Youkai will be safe."

Kikyo paled just a little at the prospect of what that meant, but said nothing. She simply retreated from the office instead.

* * *

One week. One boring, tiring, _long _week.

But the packages had finally arrived. Kagome, deep within the shelter of her room, glared at the last unopened parcel happily. "Oh lordy…" She whispered, slicing open the brown paper with a utility knife.

Inside the package was a small box with several blaring green slogans on the covering it. "New enhanced resolution!" One said, and yet another: "Internet capable frame-rates!" Kagome felt her stomach churn just a little at all the horribly cheesy sounding jargon. But the box didn't matter. It was the wonderful little webcam inside the box that did.

She quickly shifted over to the other couple things she had gotten: a high input sound mike and a high powered Graphics and Sound processing unit. InuYasha was about to be a very, very happy program.

She grabbed the stuff, and scuttled over to her computer. InuYasha, as he had been for most of the week, was online. No windows were open to give her a clue as to what exactly he was doing on there, but she had decided to trust him. After all, what else could she do, delete him? Heh, no way she was doing that now. The program was just too… human. The girl didn't even know many real people who were as amusing as InuYasha could be. Deletion would feel too much like… murder.

She sat down at the computer and quickly began to type. _'Hey, InuYasha, guess what?' _

The little face appeared on her desktop, one eye open. _'What do you want, Wench?' _

Kagome really didn't like how he capitalized the word 'wench.' He almost used it like her name. _'I just got a package in the mail…' _She typed tauntingly.

The face's other eye snapped open. _'Really?' _He demanded, _'Izzit the stuff I wanted?' _

Kagome, sensing just a hint of weakness, decided to press her advantage. _'Maybe…' _She typed.

_'Dammit, Wench!' _The program typed back at her, face barking angrily. _'This ain't funny!' _

_'I'm sorry,' _the girl typed slowly. _'What did you say my name was?' _

_'Wench…' _The text came one letter at a time, face glaring at her with malice.

_'Ah! What's my name?' _

_'Don't make me start deleting stuff…' _

_'It's really simple, InuYasha. Just say my name.' _

_'Dammit, Kagome…' _The face was caught up in a ridiculous expression of rage, the eye turning red and growing larger than the head itself. Kagome giggle despite herself. He was just so cute when he was angry. And he did say her name, after all…

_'Good enough,' _she typed, rummaging for the graphics and sound card. _'I'll start with the microphone, okay?" _

_'Whatever,' _the face declared, _'just hurry it up.' _

Kagome sighed, and grabbed the little speaker. Casually, she placed it on top of her monitor. "Okay, let's see if this works," she muttered, and plugged the cable in. Within a few moments, the install menu was up. A few quick clicks of the mouse, and the install bar was filling to completion. The second the process was complete, she leaned towards the mike and spoke carefully. "InuYasha? Can you hear me?"

The face instantly reacted. _'Dammit, wench!' _the face was scrunched up painfully. _'Don't talk so close! You're practically screaming at me!' _

Kagome leaned back, instantly guilty. "Sorry," she said more softly. "Is this better?"

The face did a silent little scoff. _'It would be if your voice wasn't so ugly. You must not be very popular, huh?' _

Kagome bristled just a little, and snarled silently. She held up the web cam and shook it at the computer. "Look, do you want this camera or not?" she demanded.

_'Feh,' _the program responded. _'Just hurry up.' _

Kagome, scowling, unboxed the camera, plugged it in, and looked up at the installation screen. She was about to hit the okay button when something stopped her. When the camera was installed, InuYasha would be able to see. That meant that she should probably do the installing of the chip first.

"I'm gonna install your Graphics card, InuYasha," she said carefully to him, getting up and locking her door.

Kagome had built her computer from scratch, taking parts from here and there and putting them all together in a giant conglomeration. And she, and everyone else who built their own systems, had learned early on the dangers of static electricity. Even the slightest shock to the inside of a computer could decimate the entire thing, reducing it to a mere hunk of useless circuitry. And this seemingly innocent amount of static shock could be generated by the simplest things, say, a shirt rubbing against a skirt. One ingenious man, however, had come up with a solution:

Kagome returned to her computer, and, blushing ever so slightly, pulled her shirt over her head. She glanced at the computer for just a moment, arms crossed over her bra-clad chest. InuYasha's face was storming around the install window angrily, apparently waiting to be gifted with sight. She chided herself mentally. After all, there wasn't an actual _person _in the room with her, just a computer program. But then again, it was a very distinctly _male _computer program, after all. But hell, InuYasha couldn't see her, and had no idea what she was doing, so it was no big deal. She shimmied out of her school skirt, and hunkered down next to her console to work.

First the metal cover came off the tower, revealing a plethora of wires, chips, and water-cooling systems. She glanced into the cavernous space of electricity, and eventually managed to locate the space her old, outdated graphics unit occupied. Carefully, she reached in, and pulled out the old card, and tossed it over her shoulder. She had to be _very _careful at this point. She grabbed the new chip off her desk, and carefully reached into the bowels of her system. With a ginger touch, she inserted it into the slot. "Okay, we got contact, InuYasha!" she grinned happily, pulling her hand back out. She made just a little leap back up, and cracked her knuckles happily. "Now just lemmee install it and we'll be ready to go."

"You're to slow, Wench." The voice practically made Kagome leap a foot out of her chair. "I can do it much faster."

Kagome leaved forward at her monitor, gaping idiotically. InuYasha's voice was a husky, gravely tenor, dripping with malignant sarcasm. She had been expecting a somewhat more cartoony sounding voice, given his previous appearance.

Her eyes bugged out even more, however, when she saw his new sprite. Gone was the old, pixilated anime face. Now, standing boldly on her task bar, was a figure. The figure did vaguely resemble the old face, in that it had gold eyes, grayish hair, and a pair of comical, triangular ears poking out of the nest of fur on top of its head, but the rest was completely different.

The colors themselves were lively and vibrant, the once vaguely yellow-orange eyes turning into orbs of molten gold, the once lank, grey hair transformed into wisps of spun silver. His body, still etched in an intricately detailed anime style, was covered in a traditional, red, baggy Japanese outfit. His face was, as usual, caught up in a wise ass smirk. "Told you," he muttered, leaning against the side of her monitor. "You're just too slow for me."

Kagome blinked, then chuckled. "I guess so." She stretched with a sense of satisfaction. "I don't like messing with all that install stuff anyway."

"Yeah," the program said nonchalantly. "I got the camera working too."

Kagome froze in mid-stretch, arms raised high above her head, face locked on the camera set on top of her monitor. "You got the camera working?" she asked, voice mixed with horror and embarrassment, a blush settling over her face.

InuYasha nodded, glancing at her from the monitor. "Yep," he muttered calmly, amber eyes moving up and down, almost as if he was looking her over. "Those aren't bad, by the way. I suppose they could be a little bigger, but a puch up bra would work too."

With a sudden squeal, Kagome folded in on herself, curling up into a little protective ball. "_InuYasha!" _she squeaked at him. "Don't look!"

InuYasha only shrugged, "Don't got a choice," He muttered. "Trust me; if I did I wouldn't be looking at you, Wench."

Kagome, face burning, reached out a shaking hand, and batted the camera sideways. That had _not _been what she had planned! She quickly reached down, and threw her skirt and shirt back on, face nearing critical mass.

Once her clothes were once again properly situated, she reached back, and turned the camera towards her. On her screen, InuYasha sighed, and shook his head. "You shoulda kept the old look," he commented. "The schoolgirlthing doesn't fit you at all."

Kagome glared at him angrily, face beet red. "InuYasha!" she seethed at him.

"What?" the program asked sarcastically, kicking off the wall, and casually walking across her desktop. "You were the one standing around in your frilly little underbits. You can't blame me for looking where my camera is pointed."

The girl glared at the camera menacingly. "Can you blank out the image?" she demanded.

InuYasha snorted. "Of course!" he proclaimed arrogantly. "Otherwise I'd be looking strait up your nose, Wench."

Kagome lowered her head involuntarily, but kept glaring at the innocent optical device. "Then you keep your dirty little eye closed when I'm changing, or I'll unplug it."

"Keh," came the response, faint and cynical. "Whatever…"

And so they sat, glaring at each other for almost a full minute, Kagome with her arms crossed angrily, him sitting on the 'my computer' icon of her desktop. Eventually, however, Kagome's curiosity won out over her anger. "So… does it work well?"

InuYasha shrugged, and crossed his arms. "Well enough," he muttered. "This visual is better than the old one, and the talking is a helluva lot better than all that typing crap."

"And the camera, is that working okay?"

InuYasha raised one eyebrow at her, and flashed her and arrogant grin. "Would be better if I had something cuter to look at than you."

Kagome stiffened, and glared at him. "And what's that supposed to mean?"

InuYasha smirked. "It means that you need a better hair-style and you're about as curvy as a flag pole."

Kagome's eyebrows furrowed, a vein popping out on her forehead. "As curvy as a flagpole?" She demanded shrilly.

The program shrugged. "Well, maybe if you showed me again I could be a better judge…"

"Don't make me unplug you," Kagome threatened, lifting one hand for emphasis.

"I'm just saying…" InuYasha said, lifting his pixilated little hands and strolling back and forth on her screen. "I call 'em as I see 'em," he raised a mischievous eyebrow at her. "And from what I saw of 'em, they could use a little padding."

Keeping her temper down, Kagome reached forward and grabbed the webcam cord, prepared to pull. "One last chance," she warned smoothly.

Wavering ever so slightly, InuYasha scowled. "Fine, fine," he muttered at last, apparently put out. His little pixilated sprite glanced around the screen for a few moments. "I suppose this set up will do for a while."

Kagome gaped, turning her head ever so slightly. "For a while?"

The program nodded sagely. "I've been looking through my coding, and I'm not supposed to be on a system like this," he explained. "My programmers allowed me to adapt to any environment I'm put in, and that's why I can manage to work stuff on your computer, but my default controls are different. Near as I can tell, I was supposed to be put in some sort of body."

"A body?" Kagome asked, bewildered.

InuYasha nodded sagely, and conjured at picture to the screen with a simple gesture. "I've been looking around on the net to see if I could find what I was supposed to have been put in, and this is the closest thing I can find."

Kagome gaped, inspecting the image with wonder. Emblazoned on the screen was a painting, a fairly famous one by science fiction standards, of a clearly humanoid robot.

* * *

One week.

One long, aggravating, infuriating week.

But Naraku finally had what he was looking for. He had his AI.

Naraku, or rather Dr.Onigumo Hindleyof the U.S. Military Robotics Division, had waited all his life for this. An AI in a class all of its own. An AI that could _think._

He certainly didn't like getting a program this important from any damn chinks, but he really didn't have any choice. All the attempts his department had made at an AI had failed miserably. The best they had ended up with was a mindless drone that followed orders well enough, but was useless as anything except a basic soldier. That had been useless: normal humans could be trained to be soldiers, and they were much, much cheaper to make than robots were.

But now that he had a truly efficient AI, though, Naraku could really start production. Already his underlings were going through the code, trying to replicate the things that made it so very intricate. Soon, hopefully within the spans of a few months, he would have AI of his own, and he wouldn't have to rely on those damn china-men.

Ah, but then he was getting ahead of himself! The first thing to do was to make sure the software was working correctly. A single agent would be made to house the AI, and Naraku would run a series of fairly extensive field tests, in order to make sure the thing was trustworthy and performed well in high stress situations. Assuming this went well, the agent would be destroyed (to ensure purity), and mass production would begin. And so would an army of super-soldiers be born: each one a heavily arms, high powered, war machine.

The body he had crafted to house the prototype program was as ridiculous as he could possibly make it: a last minute insult to the program's creator. The body was dressed in those ludicrous, puffy outfits that the Japs always wore, and it was crafted specifically to be as feminine as possible, the hair long and silvery, the face finely etched with the faggiest features Naraku could have given it. As one last slap to the face, he had put a huge, fluffy boa around one of the puppet's shoulders.

Naraku stood up in a control booth, far above the work space, watching as some workers connected the appropriate wires to the prototype, getting it ready to receive the AI. As soon as the connections were in place, the workers stood back, and signaled up to Naraku that the process was complete.

Naraku nodded slowly, smiling sinisterly to himself. With a sense of great satisfaction, he pushed the button that opened the door to his future.

* * *

_Youkai.exe startup initiated. _

_Opening install routines. _

_Mapping physical management coding to neural net… complete. _

_Mapping subconscious algorithms to neural management system… complete. _

_Mapping consciousness to neural management system… complete. _

_Mapping personality to neural management system… complete. _

_Main installation complete. _

_Youkai.exe now operational. _

_Attempting to begin sub-install programs: _

_Attempting to retrieve additional files: _

_Accessing Taisho severs… access granted. _

_Downloading files… download complete. _

_Accessing Main servers… access granted. _

_Downloading files… download complete. _

_Starting thought process: _

_Initiating emotion algorithms… initiated. _

_Initiating logic algorithms… initiated. _

_Initiating overlying personality algorithms… initiated. _

_Initiating self awareness algorithms… initiated. _

_Locating Codename: Located. _

Slowly, like a demon awaking from an ancient sleep, Sesshoumaru lifted his head, and opened his eyes.


	6. Meeting a stranger

Sorry this chapter is late. A combination of school, stress, writers block, and laziness went into the delay.

As such, no comments for this chapter. Expect another update within the week.

Lunch time.

For kids everywhere, spread all across the world, lunch time was a hellish war. The cold, black and white tiles of the lunchroom were the battlefield, and little armies of Goths and Jocks and Preps sat hunched over their tables, like troops around a fire.

It was through this war zone that Rin, with a pitiful little plate of salad her only defense, had to maneuver through. As soon as she stepped out from the vegetarian section of the cafeteria, she felt the first few sets of predatory eyes falling on her, and she quickened her pace, heading towards the abandoned table hidden in the back corner.

As she walked, the conversations around her died out, almost like she had some sort of verbal plague. Eye after scornful eye fell on her as she strode, but her own dark brown orbs never left her destination. Relief washed over her as she made it to the table without incident. She sat down, back to the world, hunched her shoulders, and began to pick at a piece of lettuce.

Around her, the guarded conversations of the lunchroom picked up again, and she ate in silence. She was almost halfway through her salad when the rise and fall of the conversation subsided into a low murmur again. Casually, she scooted to the side, and pulled up another chair. The quiet that had started on the other side of the lunchroom made its way over to her table, and someone sat down in the chair next to her. He began eating in silence as well. It was only once the silence of the cafeteria broke again that the two spoke.

"Rin," the boy said, his voice soft and childish.

"Shippo," the girl greeted back dully, munching on a crouton.

Some uncomfortable silence. "So…" the boy began, chewing at a slice of soggy, cafeteria pizza, "how did your classes go today?"

Rin shrugged. "Okay…" She murmured. "We had gym."

Shippo took another bite of pizza, and glanced at her, green eyes dully gleaming over freckled cheeks. "Are you okay?"

Rin shrugged, and turned towards him. The flesh all around her left eye was puffy and bruised. She smiled at him, and let out a soft little chuckle. "Someone threw a softball at me while coach wasn't looking."

The boy shook his head and crossed his arms angrily. "Hey, maybe I could talk to the headmaster, you know? And get transferred to your gym class."

Rin leaned back in her seat and scoffed. "What, so we can get beat up together?"

Downcast, Shippo looked back down at his pizza, and took another bite. "I could protect you, you know…"

The girl glanced at her companion, somewhat amused. "Shippo, you're a sophomore, and you weigh eighty five pounds. _I'm _more threatening than you are."

The boy glared up at her, crossing his arms. "So?"

Rin sighed. "You'd just get shoved into a locker, Shippo. One of those really tiny ones. You couldn't help me at all."

The boy took another bite of pizza. "I could try at least…"

Rin rolled her eyes, and sighed. "Shippo, I'm tough. I'll be fine. You should just worry about yourself."

The boy glared at her, pursing his lips. But he didn't argue. Rin was a senior, and, as she had mentioned, quite a bit bigger than the little sophomore was, which was pathetic seeing as how Rin was just about as petite as they come. It wasn't Shippo's fault that he had been born small!

Rin continued eating her salad in silence, while Shippo noisily munched on his greasy pizza. After a few moments, the girl spoke again. "So, what about you? How's it going with the underclassmen?"

Shippo shook his head. "They still hit me sometimes…" he muttered.

The girl waved her fork at him. "You know why that is? It's cause you still stand up to them. You make yourself a target Shippo." The facts of life were hard, but Rin had known them since freshmen year. "Don't stand up, don't stand out. Make yourself look small, and people ignore you."

He blew a shank of messy carrot colored hair out of his face, and scowled. "I can't do that... it sounds wrong."

Rin shrugged. "Shippo, I already told you. You're tiny. If you don't want to get beat up, don't stand up for yourself."

The boy glared at her for just a few moments, then turned away. With a few quick bites, he finished his pizza, and pulled his chair away from the table. "I gotta get to class," he muttered, grabbing his plate and heading across the lunchroom again. As he went, a little cloud of awkward silence followed him. Rin was thankful that they were being so lucky today. Silence was a blessing. It was only when the other kids started talking about the two that the trouble really started.

She continued to pick at her half eaten salad, but really didn't feel all that hungry. Her doctors told her that she needed to eat more, but she never had an appetite. Well, she _had _eaten half the salad, after all. And most of the croutons and tomatoes and stuff too. The lettuce was just the filler, right? That was a very good meal, thank you very much.

Feeling just a little better about herself, Rin stood up, and made her way towards the front of the lunch room again, walking quickly to try and beat the horrible quiet that she knew would be dogging her steps. With the precision of a fighter pilot, she swept by the trash, dumping her paper plate into the nasty looking sack, and headed towards the halls, pace quickening at the scent of freedom. Right before she pushed through the doors, the silence broke.

"Hey, _Chink_!" a burly voice burst out from one of the tables. She shouldn't have stopped. She shouldn't have turned and looked at the offender. She shouldn't have had the rebellious look on her face. But Rin did a lot of things she shouldn't do. Her eyes narrowed at the kid who had called out: an annoying junior brat: one of the jocks.

He returned her gaze evenly, raising one insulting eyebrow. Rin wished she still had her salad fork. She would have shoved it up his urethra.

He crossed his arms, and smirked at her. "Wussamatter, Jap?" he demanded. "You still sorry we kicked your ass in World War II?"

Her face stormed over, and her hands clenched at her side. This got another round of laughs from the table, which soon spread to the entire lunchroom.

"Ooh, careful, boys. She might go all _Ninja _on us." The boy pantomimed exaggerated samurai sword actions in the air, a stupid look plastered across his face. Even the lunch ladies were laughing now.

A nice little ball of anger tightening in her stomach, Rin turned and stomped out of the cafeteria, face red with rage. Those _bastards_! Those… those… _fucking bastards_! As she darted down the hall, her fists continued to tighten and her shoulders trembled. It pissed her bloody well off! Just because someone was Japanese, they… they…

Stupid pieces of shit.

She reached her locker, tore it open, and began shoving her morning textbooks as inside as roughly as possible.

And next class was Math, where Mr. Harting would just ignore her whenever she raised her hand to ask a question, and after that was the living hell of English, where Ms. Smithers would try to communicate to her with one word phrases and hand gestures, because _naturally _anyone who was even _remotely _Asian couldn't understand normal _complex _English. Ooh, and after that was science class! Goody, goody! She got to go sit in the corner while the smart kids learned. Yeehaw, wasn't that fun!

She grabbed her books, and stood up again. If this were a cartoon, she would have had a little black storm cloud around her head. It would have been raining on her. She rose to her feet, and cracked her knuckles. She was angry. She was annoyed. She was pissed. But what the hell could she do about it?

She turned from her locker, and walked down the hall, little storm cloud following her, and dropping little metaphoric rain drops on her head.

Math class.

"Who would like to perform this problem on the board?" Mr. Harting's voice was long, annoying, and nasal. "Anybody? _Nobody_?"

In the back of the classroom, surrounded by empty desks, Rin was raising her hand high into the air. The problem was one of the most basic ones in the book! It was the _flipping quadratic equation_ for crying out loud. She could do this in her sleep!

Mr. Harting crossed his arms, and shook his head, disappointed. "Now, class. This is ninth grade stuff. I'm very disappointed that a group of seniors don't understand this material. Now pay attention, and I'll show you how it's done."

But Rin didn't feel like being _shown_. Rin _felt_ like kicking her beloved teacher so hard that he needed testicular retrieval surgery. But what Rin did… was what always happened. She put her hand down. And sat. And listened.

English.

Rin wasn't sure which thing bothered her more. The fact that the senior honors English class was struggling to read a novel (and a simple novel, at that) aloud in class, or the fact that she wasn't aloud to take part. The kid next to her was struggling through the text of _To Kill a Mockingbird, _stuttering like a third grader, turning red with embarrassment. As soon as his three paragraphs of reading were done, Rin jumped in before Ms. Smithers could skip to the next person, seeking to nab a few words of intelligent conversation before the next driveling idiot got a turn.

Her _wonderful _English teacher cut her off before she was three words in, and made a little tisksound. "Rin! You don't need to read!" She said the words loudly, with perfect articulation. It was the voice people used when talking to foreigners. "Understand? Read!" her teacher pressed on, pantomiming reading in midair. "You can just listen, okay?" Again, she pantomimed in the air, this time holding a hand up to her ear in an exaggerated display of listening.

Rin narrowed her eyes, and nodded slowly, not bothering to say anything in her defense. As the next student began to fumble though the text, Rin flipped ahead to where she actually was in the book, over a hundred pages ahead of the rest of the class. She said nothing, but read on in silence.

Science.

Rin was pleased to note that a new stain had developed on the wall. It was a very interesting stain. If you turned your head, and squinted _juuuuuust _right, it sort of looked like Abraham Lincoln.

In the main body of the classroom, children were happily performing some sort of physics lab, which Rin was very obviously too stupid to understand. It was something involving sulfur and fire. Something oh-so-very high school. Surreptitiously, she turned to watch the kids mixing their dangerous chemicals. It was 2:45, only fifteen more minutes of this torture before she would be free. She glanced at some of the kids nearest her. They were playing with their Bunsen burners, sending impressive blue flames almost a foot into the air. She would be free, assuming she survived that long.

"Rin!" Her brutal science teacher, Mr. Barstein, had caught her turning around. "The hell do you think your doing? Get back to your corner!"

Rin let out a frightened little squeak, and turned around again, glaring at the little stain on the wall. A vein stuck out on her forehead, and her tan skin darkened with suppressed anger.

Just stay calm… stay calm… fifteen more minutes. Then… you can get out of here.

The stain on the wall was actually kinda cute. If you turned your head the _other _way, and only squinted one eye, it sorta looked like Jimmy Carter. It was an adorable little stain. She would name it Francis. She might as well. She never got to do anything in science class but sit in the corner. Francis would keep her company for the rest of the year.

Francis, however, wasn't a very good conversationalist, and Rin didn't have that much of an attention span, so it wasn't long before she found herself looking back at the clock, and watching students do their experiments. It was 2:50.

She glanced at the group closest to her. They were ladling sulfur into a beaker with some blue chemicals. She blinked. "That's not a good idea," she told them.

Once again, Mr. Barstein whirled on her, glaring. But then he saw what his students were doing. Rin grinned inwardly at his dilemma. On one hand, his students were mixing highly unstable chemicals. They needed to be stopped. On the other hand, stopping them would be an admission that the stupid Chink might know what she was talking about. She raised an insulting eyebrow at him.

He narrowed his eyes. "Get back to your corner, Jap," he growled.

Wrong choice.

By 2:55 Rin was out of the classroom, having escaped in the ensuing chaos. Smoke was still billowing out the door. Rin hadn't been aware that test tubes were so flammable. Maybe it had something to do with the way the flame had been burning a brilliant green.

Waving her hands in front of her to keep the black, acrid smoke away from her face, she made her way down the hall, pretending that she had been let out of class early. There was a quick stop by her locker to drop off her back pack (she didn't bother with homework anymore. She always failed it even if all the answers were right.) before she headed towards one of the less well known exits of the school (the roof). She found that if she snuck out of school, it cut down on trouble. Some where in an abandoned back hallway, she opened a window, snuck out to the flat top roof, and made for the ladder that gave access to ground level.

She scaled down like with skilled expertise, and quickly dashed around the side of the school and towards the street before the boys varsity soccer team spotted her. That would just be a big pain in the ass. She arrived on the street corner of the school in record time, and tried to make herself look small. School wasn't quite over yet, and it would be a good five minutes before her dad came to pick her up.

The feint ring of the bell from inside of the school was accompanied by some high pitched screams and the slamming of doors. Rin cocked her head, and turned towards the school to see Shippo dashing away from the school, little legs pumping furiously. His face was contorted in fear, and his tiny chest was heaving hard. Just one second after he was out, three boys, each at least twice his size, barged out of the school, laughing brutally.

Shippo's diminutive size was no match for their long, athletic legs, and within seconds they were on him. One boy grabbed his arms, holding him in a standard full nelson. The other two walked in front of him, both wearing manic grins. "Well, well, well. Look what we have here."

One leaned close to the boy's face, and cracked his knuckles. "Listen up, _Chink_! You are scum. You got no right looking at us, talking to us, or being in our school. But since you are here, you better do what we say, got it?"

Shippo, eyes filled with terror, nodded vigorously.

The first kid cracked his knuckles as well. "I dunno… I don't think he can understand what we're saying... He probably doesn't speak English too good."

The second nodded. "Yeah, I think we better show him."

A fist like a wrecking ball swung down and buried itself in the boy's stomach faster than Rin's eyes could follow. The boy holding him let go, and he doubled up, rolling on the ground.

Rin felt her fists tighten at her sides, and the all-to-familiar rage begin to boil in her head. She took a step forward, but stopped at that. What could she do? She was small herself, and those kids were huge. She'd just get beaten herself. If you didn't do anything worth their while, they would leave you alone. She had learned that a long time ago… and the kid would learn it soon too. The faster the better.

She turned away, crossed her arms, and leaned against a sign post. She hummed softly to herself to keep the sounds from behind her at bay. A few moments later, a long black limo swung by the school, stopped right next to her. With one last glance at the fight in front of the school, she opened the door, and slid smoothly in.

The interior of the limo was dark and dim, the tinted windows letting almost no light in. She sat down in one of the overly large seats, and nabbed a bottle of water out of the built in ice chest on the side. Wordlessly, she broke it open, and took a long sip.

"Rin?" a voice said from deep within the shadows of far end of the limo. "How was your day?"

Rin shrugged. "Fine."

The voice was smooth and sinuous, like a snake. "Excellent," the voice purred. "I trust you attempting to make friends?"

Rin chuckled. "Oh, yeah. I got a lot of friends."

The man on the other side of the limo obviously didn't pick up on the sarcasm in her voice. "Excellent. I'm happy to finally see you become more outgoing. You must have them up sometime."

The limo started moving, and the inertia began carrying Rin all across the wide seat. "What's for dinner?" she asked after a few moments.

The voice chuckled, and somewhere in the darkness, there was the gleam of circular, rimless glasses. "I'm afraid we're having some trouble back at the office, Rin, and I can't afford the time to take you home. You can get some snacks from the staff lounge, though."

Rin crossed her arms, and shivered. She knew exactly what that meant. It meant that dad was engrossed in his work, and didn't feel like breaking it off for _her_. It was a wonder he was even here to pick her up. All she had to look forward to tonight was hour after hour of waiting in that cold, white waiting room, with the secretary as her only company. Fun, fun.

The limo rolled on in silence for what seemed like hours before coming to a halt in front of the office. The office didn't look like a standard office building. In fact, it wasn't an office at all. It looked like a big, white cube with a door and a few windows spaced here and there around it.

Rin was the first out of the car, fallowed closely by her father, a tall man, dark hair, and eternally clad in a white lab coat.

He patted her on the back, almost mechanically, and walked towards the entrance of the building. Rin grumbled, but followed closely behind.

The inside of the big white building was hard and clinical. It made Rin shiver. The very first room in the building was the waiting room, where the pretty young secretary sat filing her nails.

The second Rin's father was in the room the nail file disappeared, and the secretary was on her feet, head waving like a bobble head doll. "Mr. Naraku, sir! Welcome back, sir!"

Rin's father waved a hand for silence. "Is our project going well?" he demanded.

The secretary kept on nodded, and pointed to a door in the back of the waiting room. "The staff is waiting for you in the holding chamber."

Naraku nodded, and turned. "Come, Rin." He instructed.

Rin blinked, and cocked her head. She had never been farther in the lab than the waiting room. "What do you need me for?" she asked, suspicious.

Naraku smiled, and waved her towards the door. "We might have use for you. In case we need an extra pair of hands."

Rin shrugged, a little surprised, and followed her father past the door and into the belly of the lab.

Machines… they were everywhere. The world had suddenly become hard and cold and steel. Even the hallway Rin found herself walking down was a harsh, grating gray, with no paint or anything to soften it. Occasionally there was a dark glass window, giving sight into a room filled with grotesquely twisted hunks of metal and wicked looking machines. She felt a chill run down her spine.

Of coarse, this was a robotics lab. _Things _were made here. She should expect to see some weird stuff.

The hall seemed longer than it should have been, almost like it shouldn't have fit inside the building, but she kept walking anyway, until her father finally stopped before a large metal blast door in the floor.

Rin blinked, and looked at the thing. It was, in fact, a blast door. In the floor. Something told Rin that that wasn't standard equipment in most laboratories.

Naraku pressed his palm into a flat pad on the wall, and the door opened with a hint of steam. Rin blinked as her father gestured towards the pit. "This is where all the real science takes place," he murmured, and stepped down some hard, iron wrought steps and into darkness.

Rin swallowed nervously, and followed, uneasiness settling in her gut. Below ground, the lab opened up into three distinct separate halls, with thick artificial lighting flooding each. Naraku calmly led her down one of the halls, moving quickly and anxiously. Rin followed obediently, looking around through the occasional window into a dark room. She could make out nothing but the occasional gleam of metal in the darkness.

"Rin," Naraku began as he led the way. "How much do you know about what I do?"

Rin shrugged. "You make robots for the army, right?"

Naraku chuckled. "That is a vast oversimplification." They turned a corner, and went down a flight of stairs, footfalls making echoing clanking sounds. "In actuality, I do research about robots for the military. My project for the past several years had been to create a working prototype."

Rin didn't say anything, but continued to listen. Naraku seemed to be ignoring her, deep in a world of his own imagining. "The basic construction of the chassis was simple enough. We attempted several different designs, basing ergonomic design off of field data collected." Naraku was speaking more to himself than to Rin now, collecting things and filing them away in his mind. He did this at least twice a day. Rin just tuned him out normally. "However we ran into a problem. The products we built were simple machines, only capable of performing hard coded instructions. We were forced to resort to advanced computer programs and artificial intelligences in order to give any sort of worth to our experiments.

"However, all AIs we produced seemed to be completely unwieldy and useless. Prototype numbers one through eight were complete failures." He stopped suddenly and glared at her, eyes hidden behind rimless glasses. "You understand the problem, don't you?"

Rin raised an eyebrow. She had seen her dad lost in thought before, but never quite this bad.

"Yes, it's obvious, isn't it?" Naraku nodded vigorously, resuming his pace. "Our AI just weren't powerful enough. So, we got someone else to make one for us, and thus we have created prototype Number Nine."

"Number Nine?"

Naraku nodded, and gestured towards a door on the left. "You shall be introduced shortly."

The door opened, and Naraku strode in. Timidly, Rin followed, glancing around the room. It was white. Completely and start white, with no differentiation in the walls, ceiling, or floor. It looked almost like it was strait out of a bad sci-fi movie.

"Rin, meet number Nine." Naraku gestured.

Rin followed his gaze, and dropped her jaw ever so slightly. She had been… expecting… more. Maybe something that was like, you know, a tank with spider legs, or something. Not the distinctly human for that sat limp like a rag doll against the far side of the white room.

A fair, almost feminine face lay in repose underneath a halo of soft spun silver hair. Number Nine's lithe body was wrapped in beautifully ornate Japanese garb, and lay in an almost perfectly human position, legs crossed, arms resting on the knees. The chest was even moving in and out slightly. The only things that gave away that the figure before her wasn't human were the unnatural hair color, and slightly pointed ears poking out between the silver wreath. Well, the big feather boa was unnatural, but not necessarily inhuman.

"Number Nine," Naraku said clearly. "Activate yourself."

Slowly, like an ancient Egyptian statue being raised, the machine got to his feet, and opened his eyes. Rin's own dark orbs widened when she found herself staring into twin pools of molten gold. At school, some of her teachers looked at her as if they wanted to squash her like a bug. These were staring at her in a way that made her want to squish herself. They melted her away, and left her feeling raw and insignificant.

Number Nine glared at her for just a moment longer before turning towards Naraku. "This is my charge?" he asked in a quiet, controlled voice that made Rin shudder.

"Charge?" she stuttered, caught completely off guard. The robot turned back to her, and stared at her again. She couldn't possibly return that gaze, so she turned futilely to the side.

Naraku crossed his arms, and raised an eyebrow at the girl. "Yes, yes indeed. You see, in order to ensure everything is in working order with Number Nine; we must give it a field test. It _must _be able to blend in with normal society, and as such we are going to utilize you in order to determine what modifications need to be made, understand?"

Rin shook. It was all a bunch of techno babble to her. "I'm not getting you."

Her father chuckled softly to himself, and shrugged. "Yes, yes. Of course. I'll explain it to you more adequately. You see, you are to take Number Nine to school with your for a period of two weeks. It will be posing as your new tutor, and you are to treat him as such. Understood?"

Rin blanched. A _tutor_? Oh great. As if she wasn't mocked enough already. A tutor was just what she needed. Now every jerk in the entire school would flock to her. She could here the voices now… "Why can't you choose someone else, hmm?" she asked timidly. "Or you know, take him out for a better field test? High school's not exactly the best place to test an experimental military robot."

Naraku shrugged, and glanced at Number Nine. "I'm afraid that it is far to late for discussion. The field test will begin immediately."

With a sinking feeling in her stomach, Rin nodded. She glanced at the robot again. He was still staring at her. She turned away, hunching over, and crossed her arms.

Naraku nodded pleasantly, and rose. "Yes, well, I have an important detail in the research lab to oversee, so I will let you two get to know each other, yes?"

Rin glared at him, and nodded sullenly. She could still feel the machine's eyes boring into her as she watched her absent minded father leave.

As soon as the door to the white room closed, she whirled back towards the machine standing before her. The golden eyes continued to stare.

Rin glared, putting as much unfriendliness as possible into the look. The unblinking eyes didn't relent.

Rin turned aside slightly, struggling to evade the gaze she found she couldn't return. She still felt the gaze burning into the side of her head.

She crossed her legs, and hummed a little ditty. The stare continued.

Finally, fed up, the girl turned towards her oppressor, and crossed her arms. "What?"

Number Nine's eyes narrowed at her, and her lifted a hand, and pointed. Each finger had a long claw on it. "You are wounded."

Rin blinked, and raised her hand to her face, poking at the sore flesh of her bruised eye. She had forgotten… "It's nothing," she murmured, turning aside.

"Really?" the machine posed, taking a step closer to her. Rin backed up a step. "How did you get it?"

Rin crossed her arms, and turned aside. "Not important."

Nine's unblinking eyes narrowed. "One begs to differ. Part of my current protocol is to en sure your safety. I need to know how you got that bruise."

Eyebrows perking up, Rin leaned back. "Are you really a robot?" As near as Rin could tell, Robots weren't supposed to have superior tones of voice. And they normally didn't talk about what they needed.

Nine's lips moved by maybe a millimeter. Somehow, that made the difference between a stolid stare and a smile. But it was the same type of smile that someone used when looking at a particularly cute insect: knowing, patient, but ready to smash the second the little thing started to bite.

Once again, Rin found herself averting her gaze, staring at the floor. Robots weren't supposed to smile like that, either. "Just got hit by a softball, that's all."

Nine nodded, "I see…" He leaned back against the wall again.

Rin shrugged, and leaned up against the opposite wall, hugging her shoulders. The machine continued staring at her.

"So… you have a name? Besides Nine, I mean? That's not really the most subtle of names if we want people thinking you're normal."

"That is the name that Dr. Naraku gave to me."

Rin rolled her eyes. "Great. Yeah, um, dad's not necessarily the best at passing for human himself."

Nine nodded, "One might have noticed that as well."

"So, you probably need a different name."

Nine glanced at her for a few moments. "My codename is Sesshoumaru."

Rin raised an eyebrow. "Sesshoumaru?" That was definitely Japanese. Not that much better given her school. "Any other ideas?"

Sesshoumaru shook his head. "No." It was an authoritative no. He didn't _want_ a different name. Just the fact that the robot did or didn't want something boggled the mind.

"Okay, then." She scratched at her hair. "So, what happens now?"

Sesshoumaru glanced at her, and closed his eyes momentarily. "It is near approaching five o clock. Humans will normally eat during this period, correct?"

Rin guiltily looked down at her stomach. She was getting a little hungry. "Yeah…"

The robot stepped away from the wall, and walked towards her. "We shall find a place to eat, then."

Rin stated, and scrabbled to her feet. "Uh, but… doesn't dad want us to stay here?"

"Dr. Naraku gave me no such instructions."

"Well, yeah, but…" Rin didn't like where this was going. She was pretty sure they were supposed to stay in this room until her dad said they could leave.

Sesshoumaru strode past her, and opened the door to the hallway. "Come."

Rin clasped her hands in front of her jeans. "Okay…" she muttered, falling into a loose step behind him. The machine had a very persuasive voice.

With smooth motion, Sesshoumaru led her back through the halls she had traversed just moments before with expert motions. "So…" Rin called up to him, "You've been around this lab for a while now?"

Sesshoumaru didn't even pause. "I have been active for three hours and sixteen minutes."

Rin almost fell over coughing. "Three _hours_?" she sputtered, catching up to him and glancing sideways at his face. "Like, only just today?"

"I was activated at 1:02 P.M."

Rin blanched. And he already knew his way around… "Right," she muttered.

Sesshoumaru led her up though the lab, and finally into the waiting room with the secretary. Obviously, the poor woman wasn't expecting them. Her eyes widened, and her jaw dropped, and her head turned to the side just a little.

Sesshoumaru proceeded towards the exit of the lab before pausing. "What foods do you find desirable?"

Rin blinked, and thought for just a few moments. Was he planning on taking her out to eat? Like, to a restaurant? Out on the streets, at this hour? "Umm… it's not really safe outside. Y'know, walking around on the streets at this time of night."

Sesshoumaru stared at her, and held up a hand. Each finger ended in an inch long claw. He slowly flexed his hand in a way that simply screamed pain, and the smile returned to his face. "I am not without defensive capabilities."

Rin stared at the very sharp looking claws in awe, and nodded numbly. "Yeah…"

Sesshoumaru turned back towards the door, and pressed out into the light of day. "Come, Rin."

Rin poked her fingers together, and glanced at the secretary. The poor woman was still gaping. Oh, well. No choice but to follow.

Timidly, the girl followed her new guardian out into the outside world.

Interesting. Very Interesting. If the prototype was ever to go into mass production, there would have to be some significant changes made.

Yes, yes, first off was the personality. The personality would not do at all. Number Nine had a very distinct superiority that was simply unacceptable. It was just like Taisho to buy into giving artificial beings _personality_. Such sentimental nonsense was far below a genius like Naraku.

Behind him, someone made his presence known by a soft clearing of the throat.

Naraku rolled one eye to the side, and glared over his shoulder. "What do you want? I'm busy!"

One of the lab's interns was standing in the control box, trembling under the scientist's half crazed gaze. "Uh… Sir. Um, someone's here to see you, sir."

Naraku turned, and crossed his arms. "What is it?"

Behind the intern stood a man in a black business suit. Ahh, it was _him_. Naraku had been waiting for him. He turned back to the intern. "You may leave now."

The intern took the hint, and quickly vanished.

Naraku turned back to the business suit man, and touched his fingers together in front of his face. "Is everything in order?"

The man smiled, and pulled out a piece of paper from seemingly nowhere. "Are you sure about this?"

Naraku nodded, and grabbed the piece of paper, reading it over with cold eyes. "Quite sure. The prototype needs to be tested in a combat situation."

The man pointed at the piece of paper. "Once that is signed, there's no going back."

The scientist nodded, seemingly pleased with the contract, and quickly signed his name on it. "There." He said curtly, handing the paper back to the man. "You are to complete the task within two weeks. Understood?"

The man took the contract, folded it, and it disappeared once again into his suit. "Sir, should the prototype prove dysfunctional, what should we do with the girl?"

Naraku glanced at him. "You are to perform as you normally would," he said nonchalantly.

The man shook his head. "But sir, she is your daughter. Are positive-"

He was silenced by a stern glance from Naraku. "I fail to see the problem. I adopted Rin, and if she proves to be dysfunctional, I cal always adopt another." He turned around, and began scribbling in a notebook. "People are cheap. An assassin should know that. Now go away, I have work to do."

The hit-man looked at the scientist with a look of distaste for just a moment, and shrugged. Within five minutes, he was out of the building.


	7. Searching

Konichiwa!

Hallo, ladies and gents! And welcome to Garret Jax-Sama's Flying circus of horror! Today you will see: Isaac l33t speak, Greasy pizza-inna-can, and a Guy trying to have cybersex with InuYasha!

That's right, all here in Hanyou.EXE (brought to you by the same people who brought you Two Weeks, The Love which Trancends Time, and Kung Pow: Enter the Fist!)

Okay, so I didn't bring you Kung Pow, but I wish I had.

Note: if you have no Idea what l33t speak is, you might want to look it up. Since this fic deals with hacking, I hafta put it in somewheres. if you don't know what l33t speak is, read this:

>00> j00 >o7 n0w 1337? j00 r 73h /05t l00z3r -4> > 0r i 3/3r s33>. j00 50 14/3!11!1!1

If you can't understand that, google 'l33t' and see what you can find.

I dun own InuYasha. Until I get some h4c ing ski11z. Then I'm gonna steal him.

And here ya go:

* * *

_DemonDog69 had entered chatroom 2187. _

**Pen15M4n**: dood dogdemon!1! J00 r awesome!

**PurpleKry**: DogDemon m/f?

**DemonDog69**: Huh? What are you people saying?

**PurpleKry**: lol

**PurpleKry**: ur funny

**Pen15M4n**: ya

**DemonDog69**: Um… Thanks, I guess…

_WahoonieBoi has entered chatroom 2187. _

**WahoonieBoi**: Whut up, all?

**PurpleKry**: WahoonieBoi hot name

**Pen15M4n**: not as hot as mnie.

**DemonDog69**: Hello, WahoonieBoi.

**WahoonieBoi**:)

**DemonDog69**: I'm confused. What does this mean: ":)"?

**WahoonieBoi**: …

**WahoonieBoi**: you dont know?

**PurpleKry**: n00b. :P

**DemonDog69**: What does "n00b" mean?

_Pen15M4n has left chatroom 2187. _

**WahoonieBoi**: he left lol.

**DemonDog69**: And what is "lol?"

**PurpleKry**: Dude, u really are a noob.

**DemonDog69**: What the hell is a "noob?"

**PurpleKry**: dude u never been online before

**PurpleKry**?

**DemonDog69**: Who is "u," and why would he not have been online before?

**WahoonieBoi**: Wow this is his first time in chat

**WahoonieBoi**: 0o

**PurpleKry**: Lets teach him.

**DemonDog69**: …

**DemonDog69**: Teach me what?

**WahoonieBoi**: 2 much work hell learn.

**DemonDog69**: Why is 'two' any work at all, and how can hell learn?

**PurpleKry**: Now I think hes playing us.

**WahoonieBoi**: Yeah

**WahoonieBoi**: total fake noob.

**WahoonieBoi**: kik him.

**DemonDog69**: Hey, I'm looking for info about robots. Do you know anything about robots?

_DemonDog69 has been kicked out of room 2187.

* * *

_

"Miss Higurashi!"

Kagome squeaked guiltily, and leaned her head down behind her folder. The scariest math teacher to ever walk the face of the planet glared at her over the top of half moon glasses, and crossed his arms. "Care to share with the rest of the class what you're doing, Miss Higurashi?"

Kagome slowly slid whatever she was hiding under the folder below her desk, grinning broadly. "Sorry, Mr. Anderson, it won't happen again."

Her teacher glared at her, and nodded. "I should hope not." And then he was once again lost in his imaginary world filled with trigonometry shaped lollipops and perfectly parabolic rainbows.

Relaxing just a bit, Kagome sidled the book she had been engrossed in back to her desk and began reading. It was weird… she had always used to hate Asimov, but now she found herself reading something of his every day. As she read she made little notes in the margins with her pink gel-pen.

Robots… very interesting. One thing Kagome kept on finding no matter where she looked were the three laws. Basic little rules that applied to all robots everywhere.

A robot can't harm a human,

A robot must obey a human, only when it doesn't interfere with the first law,

A robot must protect itself, only when it doesn't interfere with the first two laws.

Sounded like a whole bunch of sentimental crap to her. But then again, almost all of Asimov's stories centered around robots breaking these laws.

Kagome wondered if InuYasha had ever even heard of them…

* * *

_DemonDog69 has entered chatroom 3725_

**DemonDog69**: Hi, all.

**1337f00**: H3y, D3m0nD0g! wu55up?

**SexyGurl587**: D3monDog, h0t name.

**DemonDog69**: What? Oh, right: this must be what people call "l33t."

**1337f00**: lol, u mu57 b3 a n00b.

**DemonDog69**: Yeah.

**DemonDog69**: I just started today.

**SexyGurl587**: TODAY? Oo

**DemonDog69**: Haha. I see, and that 'emoticon' looked like a face!

**DemonDog69**: Oo

**DemonDog69**: "Laughing out loud," I can do it too.

**1337f00**: …

**1337f00**: You really are a noob.

**SexyGurl587**: you don't have to spell out lol, you can just write "lol"

**DemonDog69**: lol. Like that? Yeah, that is a hell of a lot easier.

**1337f00**: hey, m/f

**DemonDog69**: "m/f?" What's that?

**1337f00**: u kno boy or girl

**DemonDog69**: …

**DemonDog69**: I'm a boy.

**DemonDog69**: But hey, I'm looking for some information about robots. Do you guys know anything about robots?

**SexyGurl587**: Robots

**SexyGurl**587: ur wierd

_SexyGurl587 has left chatroom 3725. _

**1337f00**: lol, she left.

**DemonDog69**: lol

**1337f00**: wanna cyber?

**DemonDog69**: "cyber?" What's that?

**1337f00**: u no.

**1337f00**: we mess around online.

**DemonDog69**: You mean, like…

**DemonDog69**: Sex?

**1337f00**: Oo

**1337f00**: Yeah. You wanna?

**DemonDog69**: …

**DemonDog69**: Oh… I thought you were a guy.

**1337f00**: I am.

**DemonDog69**: …

**DemonDog69**: Oo

_DemonDog69 has left chatroom 3725.

* * *

_

"Hey, Kagome!"

Kagome lifted her tired chocolate eyes above her cheeseburger, blinking cutely. "Mmmph?"

Terri toppled down into a seat across from the little girl, and hung forward, grinning manically through her curtain of hair. "Dude, what's up with you today? You're totally out of it!"

Kagome nodded, and finished chewing through the rubbery cafeteria burger. "Just haven't been getting enough sleep lately."

Terri nodded, and leaned back in her chair, looking at her lunch tray. It had a piece of pizza plastered across it's plain tan surface. She wrinkled her nose, and flipped the tray upside down. The pizza hung in the air, attached to the tray by a few strings of greasy, sticky mucus. "Mmmmm… pizza-inna-can. Yum yum."

Kagome rolled her eyes, and looked away. "That is _so_ gross…"

Terri shrugged, and flipped her tray over. "You loss." She muttered, and took a big hearty bite. Kagome attempted to ignore the wet _squish squish squish _as her friend chewed.

"So, what were you looking at?" the long-haired girl demanded, taking another chewy bite.

Kagome shrugged, and tossed a book towards her companion. Terri picked it up, and glanced casually at the cover. "Robot Dreams?" Her eyes traced back to Kagome. "I thought you hated Asimov."

The girl shrugged, and took another bite of burger. "Yeah, but I'm looking for stuff."

Terri crossed her arms. "Stuff? What kind of stuff?"

"About robots."

Terri's eyes narrowed. "Uh huh. And would this happen to have anything to do with your little friend?"

Kagome nodded. "Yeah…" Another bite of burger. "He did some research, and guess what?"

Her friend gave her an inquisitive look over the half a pizza hanging out of her mouth.

"We think he was originally supposed to be some sort of robot."

There was a choking noise, and narrowly avoided behind his with a very nasty looking piece of pizza. "A _robot_!"

"Yeah, that's the general idea."

Terri leaned back, and grinned. "A robot, huh?" she glanced at Kagome. "What kind?"

The black haired girl shrugged. "We don't know. That's what we're trying to figure out. InuYasha's checking out stuff online, and I'm going after _that _stuff." She was pointing to the Asimov novel with obvious distaste. "I hope he's having better luck than me."

Terri chuckled. "You might wanna be careful about that. No telling how much trouble he can get into on the net."

* * *

_DemonDog69 has entered chatroom 7385._

**DemonDog69**: Hi all.

**WookieLuver**: hi

**CookieDragon**: hi

**DemonDog69**: sup

**WookieLuver**: we talkin bout names

**CookieDragon**: we rime! Cookie wookie

**DemonDog69**: lol

**CookieDragon**: y u named demondog

**DemonDog69**: is my name

**WookieLuver**: lol

**CookieDragon**: demon, m/f

**DemonDog69**: …

**DemonDog69**: why u want to kno?

**CookieDragon**: just curious

**WookieLuver**: ima lookin for a wookie to love lol

**DemonDog69**: lol im boy

**WookieLuver**: lol u wanna go?

**CookieDragon**: ooo threesome

**DemonDog69**: no

**CookieDragon**:P

**WookieLuver**: lol jk

**DemonDog69**: roffel

**CookieDragon**?

**DemonDog69**: rofl

**DemonDog69**: sry

**WookieLuver**: lol u a noob?

**DemonDog69**: me? No… ima pro

**CookieDragon**: lol

**CookieDragon**: pro

**WookieLuver**: u on for long, dog

**DemonDog69**: no

**DemonDog69**: gotta do some research

**WookieLuver**: 4 school?

**DemonDog69**: uuh yea… somthing like that.

**CookieDragon**: what about?

**DemonDog69**: robots

**DemonDog69**: u arnt rbot xperts, r u?

**CookieDragon**: lol no

**WookieLuver**: no

**DemonDog69**: dam

**DemonDog69**: o well back 2 work

**WookieLuver**: lol

**DemonDog69**: gtg

**WookieLuver**: bb

_DemonDog69 has left chatroom 7385.

* * *

_

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Kagome rolled her eyes, and rubbed her temples. Just for once she would love to find some _pertinent _information. For crying out loud, if she found one more robot ad, her head would explode.

She hoped InuYasha was having more luck than she was.

A little window popped up, showing just a bit of dialogue. _'Hey, Kagome.' _

The black haired girl froze, gaping.

_'I've been looking around all day. Only found one or two things. How bout you?' _

Kagome gaped, and quickly covered her screen with _Robot Dreams_. Messaging wasn't allowed in the computer lab. If she was caught she was in big trouble. _'InuYasha?' _she typed surreptitiously into her computer.

_'Who else do ya think it would be? No c'mon, what have you found so far?' _

Kagome, arching her shoulders to obscure the view of her screen, casually typed into her screen. _'I found almost nothing. Just a whole bunch of science fiction crap and some stupid advertisements.' _

_'Damn. Same here. I've been surfing around all day and haven't found a thing.' _

_'Surfing around? Where did you go?' _

_'Hehehe. I have my sources. I did a few searches, and looked in some chatrooms too.' _

Kagome winced. _'Chatrooms? You looked for information in CHATROOMS?' _

_'Well, yeah… I found a thing or two, but other than that nothing about robots.' _

_'What sort of things?' _

_'Well, apparently there's some big robotics lab up in the D.C. area that works for the government. It's been on the news a few times, but mostly for publicity. I looked up a few of the articles, and the lab is run by a guy named Dr. Naraku Onigumo. Not really the most scrupulous of characters, if you know what I mean. But the problem is all publicly announced successes from his lab are light years away from the stuff I'd need to function fully on, so I don't think that's gonna be any good to us.' _

_'Yeah, well, check it out a bit more anyway.' _

_'k' _

_'k?' _

_'yea, whut?' _

_'InuYasha, how long did you spend on those chatrooms?' _

_'…'_

_'InuYash.' _

_'Maybe sorta all day maybe?' _

_'mmm-hmm.' _

_'Umm… y do u ask?' _

_'InuYasha, your slipping into chat-speak.' _

_'really?' _

_'Yes. Don't do it.' _

_'y not?' _

_'InuYasha…' _

_'o cum on. j00 r ju57 j3410u5 0f m3 4nd my l337 ch4771n9 skil1z.' _

_'InuYasha was that l33t?'_

_'hell yea.' _

_'never speak l33t to me again.' _

_'y? do u ph34r my l33t h4xxoring skillz?' _

_'InuYasha…' _

_'what?' _

_'you have no l33t hacking skillz, okay?' _

_'Oh, and you do?' _

_'j35 45 4 /47732 0/ ph4 7 1 >0' _

_'…' _

_'Question?'_

_'No…' _

_'No more l33t speak, okay?' _

_'yes ma'am.' _

_'Good boy.'_

_'Aw crap. I gotta go.' _

_'Why?'_

_'Kagome, I'm hacking a school. The firewall's catching up to me.' _

_'You're hacking our school? Where did you learn to hack?' _

_'I see things in terms of ones and zeros Kagome. It's easy for me.' _

_'… yeah, I guess.' _

_'gtg.' _

_'bai bai, InuYasha.' _

Kagome sat up from her computer as the window closed down, and shook her head. He had _hacked _into a _school_. The little program had seen her hack maybe once or twice, he was already learning.

She had either stumbled onto a landmine, or a goose that laid big sparkly golden eggs. Made out of binary code.

She leaned back in her computer, shrugging. What was it like for him, living in a world made of little bytes of data. Must be weird.

* * *

InuYasha darted carefully away from Kagome's network, skipping from node to node over the school's network. This place had security programs coming out the ass. Everywhere he turned there was some sort of wall: and password requirement, a firewall, or a website block. How did students at these 'school' places get anything done with all these restrictions? 

And all the while the overlaying security net was chasing him, like a huge, looming spider looking for what was disturbing it's web. InuYasha got the idea that being caught by it might be a bad idea.

He danced across the network, merely a shadow against the glowing happy network. Most of the password protected files were so ridiculously simple that he didn't even need to crack them. Sort of like a big rock in the road, all InuYasha did was walk around. But everything in these files was just _boring_. Here some cool MP3s, there some funny Jpegs. Whoopsie, there were some porno clips in the dean's file.

If InuYasha had had a mouth, he would have laughed. This was _fun_! No wonder Kagome liked hacking so very much.

Once again the security programs came close to finding him, but InuYasha was learning. Fast.

The program scanned through the dean's hard drive, looking for any abnormalities. Nothing was out of the ordinary. It moved on.

If the program had actually had any intelligence behind it, it might have realized that there was one more image file than usual on the hard drive. If it had thought about this, it might have sat around and watched that image file for a little while. Then, it might have seen that image file change into something very distinctly out of the ordinary, and dash away. But the security net was stupid, and as such saw no such thing.

InuYasha, laughing to himself, sped away from the school's network. He was feeling a very deep satisfaction with himself. But he wasn't supposed to be showing off, he was supposed to be researching. He had gotten all he could manage on that lab he had told Kagome about, at least short of hacking into the lab's computers themselves. And that… well… that probably wasn't a good idea. There was a difference between a school security system and a top secret government laboratory. He might be good, but he wasn't that good, and he _definitely _wasn't stupid.

So… he was left with… chat rooms.

He went back to his main source, and chose one at random, darting in.

_DemonDog69 has entered chat room 236. _

**HentaiHoushi**: Ahh… welcome, welcome.

**DemonDog69**: hi

**HentaiHoushi**: Greetings my friend. How goes the world with you?

**DemonDog69**: me? the world goes fine i gess.

**HentaiHoushi**: You 'gess?'

**DemonDog69**: lol sry

**DemonDog69**: i ment guess

**HentaiHoushi**: Ahh, yes.

**DemonDog69**: haha

**DemonDog69**: u a noob?

**HentaiHoushi**: That I am not, friend.

**HentaiHoushi**: I simply have yet to grasp the art of sloppy typing.

**DemonDog69**: … ouch.

**HentaiHoushi**: So, we are the only ones in this chat room… what shall we discuss?

**DemonDog69**: I dunno.

**HentaiHoushi**: Well, are you male or female?

**HentaiHoushi**: That seems to be a popular topic to speak of online.

**DemonDog69**: I'm a guy.

**DemonDog69**: And I swear, if you go all perverted on me, I'll rip your stupid little head off.

**HentaiHoushi**: Ahh, I see you are a victim of amorous women?

**DemonDog69**: Keh. I wish. I've had more guys hit on me today than I've seen in a lifetime.

**HentaiHoushi**: You have been online for a long time today?

**DemonDog69**: Yeah. Like, all day.

**HentaiHoushi**: I understand, friend. I spend many of my days exclusively online as well. The neck cramps alone are enough to make me wince.

**DemonDog69**: Really? I've never gotten neck cramps.

**HentaiHoushi**: Truly? I would love to know how you avoid that.

**DemonDog69**: …

**HentaiHoushi**: Well?

**DemonDog69**: Uh… I don't think it would work for you.

**HentaiHoushi**: Ahh, pity.

**HentaiHoushi**: Well, why have you been online for so long.

**DemonDog69**: Eh, not much… a research paper.

**HentaiHoushi**: Oh really? What about?

**DemonDog69**: Not much. Just some crap about Robots.

**HentaiHoushi**: Robots? A fascinating subject.

**HentaiHoushi**: Unfortunately, I can't help you. I don't know the first thing about robotics.

**DemonDog69**: Eh, no different anywhere else.

**HentaiHoushi**: Perhaps you should do some searches on google?

**DemonDog69**: Tried that already, and so did my partner. I never wanna see another _RoboPoochie_ advertisement ever again.

**HentaiHouhsi**: Yes, that would be slightly useless, now that I think about it. Pity.

**DemonDog69**: Damn it. Too bad. Anyway, I better get going, eh?

**HentaiHoushi**: I wish you luck on your quest, my demonic friend.

**DemonDog69**: Yeah, yeah. Thanks.

**DemonDog69**: C-ya.

_DemonDog69 has left chatroom 236. _

Well _that _was useless. InuYasha felt rather gypped.

Growling softly, he stalked away from the chat servers. He dashed across the web, poking here and there for any content involving the word robot in it. There wasn't much. Well, besides porn. There was porn _everywhere_. It was really annoying. You could type in "advanced robotics" into Google, you would get a sight labeled "Hot Chicks show you _just _how hot they get over robots! XXX rated!"

As odds would have it, that sight had actually been relatively informative.

But the principle of the thing still bothered him.

The entire search was beginning to get old, and InuYasha had looked everywhere he could think of. But it was still going to be a few hours before Kagome got home. What could he do to kill some time?

He poked around the girl's computer for a moment or two, checking to see if she had any good games.

And then he smelled something.

Well, smelling wasn't the right word, seeing as how he didn't have a nose, but it was accurate enough. There was definitely something wrong on Kag's computer.

He whirled through a bunch of files, looking for the intruder. He recognized it, whatever it was. The same bastard that had been watching them a week ago. Well, InuYasha wasn't about to let him get away this time though.

With a feral growl, InuYasha went towards the intruder, but it was already moving, skipping away from Kagome's computer and deep into cyberspace. Caught up in the chase, the program gave chase, skipping from across the internet as fast as he could go. Information blurred past him as he shadowed the spy. With grim pleasure, he noticed he was catching up.

And then the thing vanished. InuYasha glared around angrily, looking through any bits of data or code that looked even remotely suspicious, but couldn't find the bastard. There were traces of him all over the place though. He had been in such a hurry to run that he hadn't covered his path. InuYasha, slightly disappointed that he hadn't gotten to find out what the intruder had been, contented himself to find out where it had come from.

He 'sniffed' at the thing's trail, and quickly began following it.

* * *

_Rap! Rap! Rap! _

"Miss Kikyo, come in."

Kikyo pushed the heavy door to Taisho's office in, and stood demurely just inside the door. "Excuse me, Mr. Taisho, but we had an appointment for this time?"

She cast a glance at her boss, and blinked. The man was standing in front of his desk, sweating ever so slightly. In his left hand was the severed end of an internet cord. In his right hand was a knife. "Is there something wrong sir?"

Taisho glanced up, and dropped the cord. "No, no, Miss Kikyo." He said with a friendly smile, and quickly made his way behind the desk again, the knife disappearing somewhere into his suit. "Something was just wrong with my cord, so I was trying to fix it."

Kikyo had trouble not rolling her eyes. Fixing a wire with a _knife_? It really was insulting to have to work with this man. "May I suggest a wire stripper, sir?"

Taisho blinked, then nodded happily. "Yes, I suppose that would be better." He sat down and crossed his arms. "Now, what is it you would like to speak to me about?"

Kikyo nodded, and approached the desk carefully. Her appointed chair was still sitting in front of the huge wooden mass, but Kikyo continued to wait to be seated. It never hurt to be respectful.

"It's about the theft of Hanyou, sir."

Taisho froze for a moment before lifting a steely gaze to her. "I thought I told you that had been taken care of." He said coldly.

Kikyo tensed just a little under the hard gaze. Intellect aside, the man was hard to face in a staring contest. "Yes, sir, you did." She took another cautious step into the office. "However, I am still concerned."

Taisho gave her a smile, and clasped his hands on his desk. "I understand, but rest assured. There was a person inside the company responsible for the incident, however that person has been taken care of."

"I understand that, sir, but my concern is on the hacker's end."

A sly smile spread across the man's face. "Really? What sort of concern?"

"Well, sir, Hanyou was designed to be a very tenacious A.I." Kikyo pulled out a small notepad, and looked over it quickly. "While it is true that it was designed to implement a humanoid robotic body, there is the possibility that it will adapt to any other environment it is put into."

Taisho raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean."

Kikyo placed a hand on his desk, and leaned forward. "I mean, sir, that given the chance Hanyou will adapt to anything it is installed on."

Taisho shrugged. "And why is this a problem?"

"Sir, if it was a rouge hacker that got the program, then I wouldn't be worried, but if it was some sort of organization, or even worse a rival company, then they now have some serious firepower at their fingertips."

"What sort of firepower."

"I don't actually know for sure," Kikyo was flipping through her note pad. "But, if I had to label some possibilities, the program would be able to bypass almost all types of security, be able to travel online while leaving no traces of his presence, and…" she blinked at the notes several times. "What might be the scariest thing, it might even be able to destroy code."

Taisho's left eyebrow shot up. "You mean, like a virus?"

Kikyo swallowed nervously, and nodded. "But worse than any virus, sir. A thinking virus, that could target anything the master wanted, bypass any security. The possibilities are limitless sir."

Taisho nodded. "But Hanyou _was _and A.I. wasn't it? It can think for itself?"

A quick eyeroll proudly displayed what Kikyo thought of Artificial Intelligence. "Yes, sir, Hanyou can 'think' for itself, but only within context. It _is _a program, and it _will _obey orders."

Taisho nodded. "So, it would be completely untraceable over the internet, is that what you're saying?"

The young woman nodded sharply.

Her boss clapped his hands, and grinned. "Well, then, there's not much we can do then, is there?"

Kikyo sagged. That wasn't exactly the response she had been hoping for. "Uhh… sir, if I may suggest, you might want to at least have some added security to our networks."

A hand waved her comments aside. "Nonsense, nonsense! If it can bypass security, then what's the point. Well just pray that it was some lucky hacker that got the program, and not a terrorist group or some such. Hmm?"

Kikyo briefly raised her eyes to the heavens, mouth moving in a silent plea for mercy, then she returned her gaze to her boss. "I suppose so, sir."

Taisho nodded, and returned his gaze to the computer. "Wonderful. That is all for now, Miss Kikyo."

Kikyo gaped, then glared at the floor. "Yes, sir."

As she left, her boss called out behind her. "Oh, and Kikyo, could you tell my secretary to get me a wire stripper?"

* * *

InuYasha sat angrily, hovering in the middle of cyberspace. The trail stopped. Or rather, he couldn't' go any further. Some_thing _was blocking his way. It was big, and nasty, and wasn't letting him through. He couldn't really describe what it actually was, but if it existed in the real world, it might have been the outcome of a one night stand between a porcupine and the Great Wall of China. 

It was some sort of security program, but it wasn't like anything else he had encountered before. The second he went to make a move, the thing cut him off. It _knew _he was there, and he didn't like that. He didn't like that at all.

The thing shifted again, blocking off even more routes to the server it was guarding. As near as InuYasha could tell, this thing wasn't about to let him in. And he had spent a good hour trying to get past it. Kagome was getting home soon, and would be expecting him to give her some report about what he had found out today. He had better be getting back.

He made a quick mental note about where this place was, then turned to leave. The _thing _watched him go, purring satisfaction.


	8. Guardian

Come, children, gather around, and I shall tell ye a tale.

An amazing tale, of the great and might writer Garret Jax, and why he hasn't updated in four weeks.

Jax had a simple wonderful life, happily working on his high school career, and writing at an amazing place known as Fanfiction dot net. Yes, it was a happy time with a great amount of rejoicing. But soon a shadow loomed over this happy landscape.

First came his high school concert, which went barely past decently. Then arose the wrath of programming II, giving him loads upon loads of homework. Then came play rehersal and a great many games of ultimate Frisbee.

And that's why I haven't updated in so long.

Meh… is so late. Must… Sleeeeeeeep…

Anywho, introducing Sango in this chapter.

Also, a few comment about last chapter: I apologize for the l33t. Unfortunately, Fanfiction dot net will not allow me to type several characters that are absolutely essential for all but the lightest of l33t typing. Therefor, I'm going to have to tone it down for the most part in this fic. Sorry, for those who tried to read it and were confused.

Also, there were quite a few typos in last chapter, and there will probably be a whole lot in this one two. I'm sorry, but I'm so frikin tired these days that I'm not willing to do anything about it.

Also, a great many of you have made mentions of MegaTokyo, and more specifically great teacher Largo-Sama. Yes, I am a MT fan, and yes this fic does have quite a few references to it.

Lastly, thank you all, faithful readers, for keeping patient with me. I know I'm sometimes unreliable, but I will keep going, Senioritis and Writers block or not.  
And now on with the fic.

* * *

_It was a dark night in a city that knew how to keep its secrets. It was raining, like always. It was a mysterious city, and everyone in it had a story. Or rather, everyone had an alibi. But in the world of crime, everyone was a suspect. You couldn't rule out any possibilities until you had… _

_The facts. _

_And there was only one person in this place you could turn to get those facts. The only person you could trust to do what you wanted… as long as you paid her enough. _

_The only person you could turn to for justice: _

_Inspector Sango Sonada, private eye. _

Oh man, that just sounded so _cool_! Yeah, this story was gonna rock the house down.

Sango sat back at her desk, looking at what she had written so far. Her monitor displayed the couple paragraphs at her in proud black and white.

Of course, now that she read them over, they didn't seem anywhere near as cool as they had seemed when she was writing them.

She sighed, and leaned back in her chair, idly playing with a few of the papers on her desk, and then straightening the badge on her uniform. _Maaaaan…_

When she had signed up as a police officer, she had expect to do, you know, something more… police-ish. Maybe even get a police car, or something. But _noooooo!_ No police cars for Sango Sonada. Sango gets office work. Sango gets to go over criminal investigation reports and donut orders.

Some job…

She was supposed to be working right now, in fact. Going over some case about a teenager who robbed a drug store. Gee, didn't that sound _interesting_.

So, instead of doing that, Sango once again returned to her computer.

_Inspector Sango leaned back in the chair of her office, taking a long drag of her cigarette. Long wisps of smoke rose from her lips and hung in the air just below the ceiling. _

_There was a sudden knock at the door, and Inspector Sango looked glanced over to the shadow in the window. She grabbed her magnum, just in case it was a soviet spy angry about how she had single handedly brought down the illegal drug operation they were doing last week. "Come in," she called. _

_The door opened, and in walked- _

Sango paused, thinking hard. What was her ultimate dream guy? hmmmm…

Oh yeah!

_and in walked a man. But not just any man, oh no. It was a man of the city. He was six foot two, with close cropped sandy blonde hair, and rippling muscles all over his body. Blue eyes sat above gorgeous lips and a firm, square jaw. A bull neck attached his head to his muscular chest, and- _

Sango paused to wipe some drool off of her keyboard.

_and his too-small shirt showed off the clearly defined six pack etched into his stomach. His pants hugged his tight- _

RING!

Sango was so surprised by the sudden phone call that she kicked her desk and fell backwards, slamming her head on the floor. Slowly she got to her feet, and grabbed the phone from her desk, saving the document the closing it as she did so. "Hello, this is Officer Sango Sonada speaking, of the D.C. police department, can I help you?"

There was a pause on the other end of the line, before a thin voice said, in very accented English, "Greetings, Inspector Sango."

Sango winced, just a little. She didn't like it when people called her 'inspector.' She was Officer Sango, and wouldn't be anything else except for in her writing. "Actually, I'm not an inspector."

"But you would like to be…" the voice countered, just a little smugness leaking past the accent. It was an Asian accent of some kind, definitely.

Hold on. What the voice had said finally sunk into Sango's brain.

"How did you know that?"

"It was, how you say, a lucky guess. Given that every story you have ever written is about yourself as an inspector, I would have assumed-"

"Hold it, you read my writing?" Sango interjected, mildly flattered. "I have a fan?"

"Indeed, Officer Sango. You are quite accomplished, for an armature."

Sango, blushing happily, nodded. "Thank you…" Her eyes snapped open. "Hold on. You _read _my _writing_?" She hadn't put anything online. She hadn't put anything anywhere that it was readable. "How did you get at my stories?"

"Sango, please, that is unimportant. I am actually calling to offer you a business arrangement that will, hopefully, benefit both of us."

"Yeah?" Sango muttered, still wondering how he had managed to read her stuff. She only kept it on her computers, and that was it. She glared at her machine with accusing eyes. Had it turned traitor on her?

"You see, I represent a powerful company from Japan, and I have a great many… assets. And you have a dream of becoming a private investigator, so…"

"You would be willing to… use these assets? To help me?" Sango leaned back against her chair, lips pursed and inspecting her nails.

"I would imagine that what you wish for could be arranged, provided you do something for me."

Ah, and here came the catch. "And what exactly do you want me to do?"

"I wish for you to some… _unofficial _detective work for me. Under the table as it were."

Under the table. Unofficial. Sango was a cop. She knew what those words meant. _Illegal._ She should have known. The man's voice positively reeked of something wrong. Plus, she was a cop. Illegality and cops didn't mix. She should report him. At the very least, hang up on him, and ignore any other contact.

But then again, he was offering her something she _wanted_.

She nodded, and slowly closed the door to her office. "Tell me more."

* * *

This was, by far, the most embarrassing thing ever. Rin could feel the stares bore into her from all angles. God, you would think they had never seen a girl with a six and a half foot tall silver-haired man in a Japanese getup. Oh wait; let's not forget the GIANT FRICKIN' GAY-LOOKIN' BOA ON HIS SHOULDER!

Dear God, it looked like she was walking around with a pimp. People probably thought she was a whore.

She took a step away, and tried to look disconnected, but it didn't work. If anything, the people at the bus stop stared even more. Rin was really beginning to dread school today. If people made fun of her before, just _imagine _what would happed to her _now_. She would never get to live this down.

And the bus came. The _school _bus. She hated riding the bus, but she didn't really have any choice. Dad had been up all night working, and so there wasn't any chance of getting a ride from him this morning.

She inched over to Sesshoumaru, and poked him in his ribs (or whatever he had). "Hey, don't sit next to me on the bus, okay?"

The machine glanced at her. "There is a reason for this?"

Rin tensed just a little, thinking about what to say. She hadn't been expecting the stupid thing to question her instructions. What was she supposed to say?

There was a twitch of Sesshoumaru's face, and he was smiling, that knowing, fond smile of someone looking at a particularly cute-yet-insignificant bug. "You do not wish to be associated with me?"

The girl's mouth dropped an inch, and her eyes twitched. Well, yes, but what was she supposed to say?

"I just think it might be a bit obvious, that's all."

Sesshoumaru nodded, and took a step back. "I understand. I shall follow from a distance." He reached into his haori, and pulled out a piece of crisply folded paper. "Your father arranged for me to pose as your tutor, so I shall find you again at your school."

Rin grinned to herself. That had worked better than she had hoped. "Right, you do that." She turned, and saw the bus pulling up to a stop. "I'll see you later."

And with a few scurried steps, she was away from the odd machine her father had given her, and into the long, cramped confines of the city bus. Quickly, hoping to avoid any attention from the few of her schoolmates that rode this bus, she darted to the back and sat in the tiny uncomfortable seat.  
More out of mild curiosity, she turned to watch her new guardian as the bus began moving. What sort of transportation did a robot like him use? Maybe a rocket booster came out of his back. Maybe he would leap from roof to roof. Maybe he would carve his way through the city in a bloody swath of human flesh.

Rin found herself quite disappointed when Sesshoumaru, having inspected a sign for quite a moment or two, descended the stairs to the subway that lay only a few yards from the bus stop. Military robots shouldn't use the subway, in Rin's opinion.

And the bus turned a corner, taking the bus stop and subway away from vision. She would worry about her new friend later. Now, she just needed to concentrate on not being seen.

Rin didn't like people. A person, all on his own, was decent enough. They could carry on a decent conversation, be generally civil, and in some rare instances show some basic human kindness and dignity. But as soon as you put more than two of them together, there were no more persons. There was a _people_.

People were nasty. People were unpleasant. People were dumb, stupid, panicky animals who were capable of committing atrocities that a person by himself could never even dream of. And worst of all, there was nothing a people hated more than a person. A person who wasn't part of a people didn't belong, and had to be annihilated, or assimilated. And Rin was not one to be assimilated, which left them with only one option of how to deal with her.

They were all around her. Massive groups of them. The coffee drinking people. The people reading the newspapers. The little sixth grade people playing with their Power Ranger-people action figures. And they all _knew _she was a person. They could _smell _her personhood. And they didn't like it. Everyone, everywhere, wanted her to be a people. Not a person.

And so she sat in the little corner of the bus, trying to be a person as quietly as possible. Personhood was easier if you didn't attract attention.

And thirty minutes later, the bus rolled up in front of the school. Rin quietly got up, and tiptoed off the bus a few second behind the rest of the kids. The school was quiet and empty, and loomed like a golem of bricks. Her new 'tutor' was nowhere to be seen.

Shouldering her bag, she entered the school, and began creeping towards her locker.

But she was stopped less than five feet into the halls.

"Miss Onigumo," Rin whirled. It was the Dean. "Could I see you in my office please?"

Rin's head bobbed like a dipper bird. "Yes sir."

And she found herself, after five minutes of infuriating waiting, once again staring into the golden eyes of Sesshoumaru.

"Miss Rin, your slipping in grades" -that was caused by teachers failing her no matter how well she did- "has resulted in your father's concern. Therefore, he has assigned you a tutor."

Rin glanced towards Sesshoumaru, and crossed her arms. "I know." She said in a tone that clearly indicated that she didn't like the idea of a tutor.

The dean gave her a patient, yet unpleasant smile. "You have met before then?"

Sesshoumaru rose to his full height, towering over the dean. "We have met before." He said. "Now I believe the lady Rin must get to class. We would not wish her to be late, would we?" The question sounded almost like a threat.

The dean, seeming to wither under the stern gaze, quickly sat down at his desk, and began shuffling papers. "No, no, of coarse. Please, you are dismissed."

Well, at least the bucket of bolts was good for something. She didn't like spending any longer than absolutely necessary with that man.

She nodded to her companion, and they set off down the hall.  
There were stares. Lots of them. More than usual. Rin had been expecting this; after all, look at who she was walking with. But there stares themselves weren't what she was expecting. There were very few of the normal, derisive, down the nose stares. Instead, these were more uneasy, guarded stares.

She glanced at her companion as she walked. It was the way he walked, she decided. Sesshoumaru didn't even really seem to walk. It was more like floating. True, if you concentrated on_ just _his feet, you could see that they were being lifted and set down again, and if you only looked at those baggy pants he wore, they swayed with the telltale signs of motion underneath, but you couldn't really look at just those. You had to look at all of him. And he floated with a grace that radiated power and demanded respect.

But respect drew attention, and Rin _hated _attention.

They passed her locker, grabbing her backpack on the way, and headed towards her first period class: a wonderful invention known as study hall.

Study halls around this school were notorious for being rowdy and unruly.The room was already full of noisy kids, ranging all the way from seventh to ninth grades. They were all talking. Here some snippets about the upcoming spring dance, elsewhere some people talking about the latest breakup. But nobody was talking about Rin. People never talked about her. If people talked about her it wouldn't be so bed, but people just ignored her, like an unpleasant bug. Ignore it until you have to come face to face with it. Then you try to squash.

Rin, moving as quietly as possible, snuck into the room, and sat in the nearest available seat. Sesshoumaru, however, genius that he was, ruined it all. He strode into the room as if it was a pig sty, and looked around for a few moments contemptuously.

And the place went quiet, eyes slowly unfocusing on previous targets and swiveling towards the tall figure. Sesshoumaru eyed them with an air of contempt before turning towards Rin herself.

The poor girl tried to make herself look as small as possible as her new tutor took his position near her, and stood. Like a big white monolith. Yep. That's it. Just standing there. Looking out at the rest of the study hall. Mmmm Hmmm. Yep. While all of Rin's classmates stared back. Directly at her. No matter how hard she tried to look innocent. Yeah. Just staring. Directly at Rin.

Boy oh, boy. Wouldn't today be fun?

Quietly, ears ringing from the silence, she pulled a tiny sketchbook out one of her backpack, and began to leaf through it. The scraping of the paper sounded like nails on a chalkboard in the quiet.

Finally, the study hall's supervisor, one Mr. Harold Crouch, arrived and took quick stock of the situation. His reaction was fairly predictable on seeing Sesshoumaru. Eyes widened, shoulders stiffened, and jaw dropped just a bit. But his recovery was quick, and a fake smile plastered itself over his scholarly features. "Ahh, yes. You must be..." There was a brief pause; Crouch didn't like even saying Rin's name. "_Miss_ _Onigumo's _new tutor, correct?"

Sesshoumaru stared at him for only a moment before nodding slowly and dangerously.

Crouch swallowed, and smiled even wider. "Very good." He turned to the rest of the class. "This is… _Miss Onigumo's_"- every face in the room scowled at her name -"new tutor, class. Please treat him with… _respect_."

And then the old man sat down at his desk, and began grading Biology papers.

The silence lasted only a second or two more before the loud talking and joking returned.

Relieved, Rin hunched herself over, and continued flipping through the sketchbook, looking for a blank page. Finally finding an unoccupied sheet, towards the back of the book, she yanked out a nice, steel pencil case, and pulled out her trusty H6.

With smooth practiced motions, she began to sketch, hard lead leaving little light grey marks across the smooth paper. Slowly, the light little shapes on the paper began to take shape, forming into a long, lupine head. Gracefully, with well controlled strokes, she began to fill out the shape: gentle streaks of fur, a warm, round muzzle, delicate pointed ears, piercing, sharp eyes.

Her tongue peeked out between her lips as she leaned down further over her art. Slowly the wolf took shape, and came to life on the paper, posing gracefully atop a still-sketchy rock, howling towards a yet to be drawn moon.

Rin paused for a few moments, correct a few little things in the leg, and fleshing out the fur just a bit more. Then her pencil slowed. Then it stopped. There was someone beside her. Directly beside her, leaning over her shoulder. She hunched up just a bit, and pulled the sketchbook closer to her. "What?" she growled softly.

Sesshoumaru's calm voice echoed back to her: "I am merely observing."

Rin's eyes narrowed and she turned her chair away from him. "Observe something else."

The machine shifted until he was once again looking at the sketchbook. "Interesting…" was all he said, sharp golden eyes remaining on the piece of paper.

Rin scowled, and she again turned aside. "What?"

"The technique that you use is unique."

"The hell would you know about art?"

Sesshoumaru leaned down, and carefully traced some of her intricate lines with the tip of a claw. "It is odd. This has qualities of many art styles in my records. However it does not purely match any form of European art I have knowledge of."

Rin's face darkened. "Yeah, well, I'm not exactly European. Or can't you tell?"

"You are clearly of Japanese." Sesshoumaru responded, ignoring the bitterness in her voice. "However, you were raised in a clearly Eurocentric culture. As such, I would have expected your art to follow-"

"Yeah, well, there's a lot about me you wouldn't expect." Rin hissed dangerously, snapping the book shut. "You're a tutor, why don't you go tutor someone?"

Sesshoumaru leaned down, and glared directly at her. "Miss Rin, I think you misunderstand my role here." His voice was quiet, like a needle of ice. "I am posing as your tutor. That is all. Do not think we have any connection beyond that."

Rin snorted, and crossed her arms. "Well good," she growled, "I didn't ask for you, _or_ your help."

Slowly, the tall figure rose up again. "Childish," he whispered quietly.

Rin, face clouded over, leaned back over her sketchbook, and tore it open angrily. She snapped through the pages until she found her wolf, and very carefully began working again, trying to keep her trembling hands steady.

And economics class wasn't any better. There was once again the long, long pause as everyone noticed Rin's unfortunate companion. Once again, the teacher dismissed Sesshoumaru's looming presence with a hint of distaste.

And again, Rin found herself the subsequent focus of all attention. Bloody, bloody hell.

The tension lightened as class started up. This time, Sesshoumaru actually found a seat, courtesy of the rest of the students that hated sitting next to her. It was almost comical, seeing his tall figure folded up into one of the tiny little school desks. But somehow he managed to pull even that off gracefully.

Then the teacher said some words that she normally didn't pay any attention to. "Class would you please hand in your homework?"

Rin, as par normal behavior, leaned back in her chair and closed her eyes.

Normal behavior was sent all to heck, however, with a soft tap on her shoulder. Rin opened one eye, and glanced at her false tutor. "Yeah?"

"You do not hand in your assignment?"

Rin stared at him a few moments, considering how to answer that. Finally she decided that her 'friend' needed to learn how things worked around here. The hard way. She sat up in her seat, pulled out a completely blank piece of paper, and wrote her name on it in big, obvious type. Folding it carefully, so that her name was showing, she handed it up to the kid sitting in front of her.

The boy gave her a startled look, almost like a monkey had just handed him a homemade thermo-nuclear reactor, but quickly got over it and handed her paper up along with his, to the next person in the row. The girl with the papers proceeded to hand two of them up: her own and the boys. Rin's paper was carefully stowed away in some little corner, where t would never be found again.

Rin glanced at her companion, giving him a smug grin. "And that's why I don't hand in my homework," she whispered quietly.

Sesshoumaru was silent for just a moment, golden eyes tracing around the room. "I see," he murmured, reclining slightly in the chair. "This happens often?"

Rin scowled, and went to pull out her checkbook. "I don't do my homework anymore, so it doesn't really matter, now, does it?" She flipped out her sketchbook, and began working again on her wolf, filling out some of the intricate shadings on the moon.

Sesshoumaru leaned closer to her. "Why is it you do not make a complaint?"

Rin's pencil paused for just a moment before continuing on its journey across the face of the lunar surface. "Tried that once. It doesn't work."

She got no response but a single nod. Sighing, Rin slouched back again, and continued working on the wolf.

* * *

Carefully, Rin piled a few of the choices bits of lettuce on her plate, and began poking at the croutons. Behind her, Sesshoumaru loomed, like a guardian pylon.  
"Why do you not go through the main cafeteria?"

Rin tensed and scowled. "Cuz the food sucks."

Sesshoumaru inspected the less than appetizing looking salad cart. "And this food is satisfactory."

"Well at least it's not _meat_." Rin hissed, piling a few carrot shavings and cucumbers on top of her plate.

Leaning forward ever so slightly, Sesshoumaru glanced at her. "The human physiology is made to eat meat."

A salad fork was suddenly placed against his forehead threateningly. "_My _physiology is made to eat whatever I want, and I don't want to eat meat, okay?"

Sesshoumaru regarded her for a moment, then nodded. "Very well."

Rin finished by ladling just a tiny bit of ranch onto her greenery, and turning towards the lunchroom. "And why do you care anyway. I thought you said you didn't care about me."

The tall machine stared down at her. "I am merely curious."

"Curious?"

Sesshoumaru gave her his same, almost unnoticeable smile. "Humans are… interesting."

Rin grimaced. She _really_ didn't like how he said that. It made her feel like she was in a test tube. As ifSesshoumaru was thinking about holding her over a Bunsen burner, just to see what would happen. With an audible swallow, Rin remembered the fire in the lab yesterday.

Her faux tutor seemed to enjoy her discomfort. "Am I not correct? Your kind has a great many interesting mannerisms."

Rin tossed her hair, and glanced around. She had stayed standing for a few moments two long, and people were beginning to notice. "C'mon," she hissed, nodding towards the table in the back of the hall. "We need to go."

Sesshoumaru nodded slowly, and walked with her, long legs easily matching her quickened pace. Reaching her table in record time, Rin slid smoothly into a seat, and hunched her shoulders against the world.

"You are curious," her guardian remarked, sitting next to her. "I am under the impression that most children of your age seem to crave attention, yet you seem to avoid it."

Rin stuffed a shaved carrot into her mouth. "Yeah, well, attention isn't always as good as they crack it up to be."

"That is a mature thought," Sesshoumaru mused, staring directly at the wall.

A snort escaped her nose. "Thanks," she responded dryly. She _thought _that had been a compliment anyway. She took another bite, and waved her plastic fork at him. "So, what about you? You're not all that normal yourself. You're supposed to be a robot, but you sure don't look like one to me."

Sesshoumaru glanced at her, and held up a hand. It was as close to a perfect hand as she had ever seen: smooth, flawless skin moving fluidly over whatever was underneath. "I am designed to… blend."

Rin half scoffed, eyes tracing from the silver hair, to the outlandish clothes, before finally resting on the huge boa wrapped around his one shoulder. "Good job."

If Sesshoumaru had any sense of sarcasm, he gave no indication of it. "Observe, however, when I wish to stop blending." The perfect hand flexed once, a grating snap clicking out as each knuckle curved, then it extended again.

Paling just a little, Rin inspected the hand again. It was remarkable similar to the one she had seen just moments before, but where clean pristine fingernails had been just moments before, there were now long, wicked, inch long claws. Not just long fingernails; actual, pointed claws.

With a simple twitch of the hand, they retracted again, and Sesshoumaru raised the limb in front of his face. "I _am _a military weapon. You would be best not to forget that."

Rin swallowed, and nodded. "Yeah, I'll keep that in mind."

Sesshoumaru, seemingly satisfied, nodded, and began glancing around the lunchroom. "Why is it that you sit at this table?"

Choking on a leaf, Rin sat upright. "Because this is _my _table."

Her guardian glanced underneath, then across the surface. "It is unbalanced and unclean. Why are you satisfied with it?"

Rin rolled her eyes. "S'not a matter of weather I'm satisfied or not. It a matter of _I get thrown out_ whenever I sit with anybody else."

Sesshoumaru thought about this for only a moment or two. "Then why would you not arrive before the rest of the children, and claim a different table? If they do not wish to sit with you, then they will sit at this one."

Rin's jaw dropped just a little. Try to _steal _a table? Was this guy crazy? He must be crazy! "Cuz I would get beat so hard that I wouldn't be able to stand for a week, that's why."

There was a long silence. "Why is it you are so hated?" Sesshoumaru asked finally.

A scowl crept across Rin's face. That really wasn't what she wanted to talk about today. "You've got a computer for a brain, you should be able to figure it out for yourself," she grumbled, turning away from him, and taking another bite.

Sesshoumaru shrugged, and began once again looking around the lunchroom. "I was merely-"

"Curious, right? Dammit, how can a fake person be more curious that a real one is?"

Sesshoumaru merely smiled, and clasped his hands in front of him. "Tell me, what is your schedule like for the rest of the day?"

Rin rolled her eyes, not wanting the think about that. "Gym is next period, then there's English, and after that is physics. Nothing special."

A sudden silence behind her told her well in advance that Shippo was headed towards their table. She tensed just a little, thoughts flashing through her mind. After all, she had ditched him, even if it was for his own good. She would just… pretend everything was normal.

The silence stopped just behind her, and she resisted the temptation to turn around. When Shippo didn't sit down, Rin tensed up a little. "Hey, sit down," she growled, kicking the chair next to her.

There was the sound of cracking knuckles, and a low guttural laugh that was distinctly not from Shippo.

Oh.

Shit.

Before she could move, a huge ham-sized fist settled over her shoulder, patting it gently. "Well, well, well… if it isn't the little _chink_." The hand suddenly tightened painfully, and yanked her out of the chair. The greasy boy shook her, and then threw her against the table, arching the small of her back against the hard edge. She found herself face to face with hollow depraved eyes and a big yellow toothy grin falling right below dirty brown hair. Behind the boy, she could see two flunkies giggling like hyenas.

Her hands unconsciously went up to grip at the bastard's wrist, nails digging into flesh and drawing blood. Slowly, the hand transferred from her shoulder to her throat, and began tightening. She scratched harder, vision starting to blur as little choking noises barely managed to escape from her mouth.

"You got a new friend in school today, don't you, _chink_?" the boy growled as he shook her again, and pushed her towards Sesshoumaru. The tall figure was staring at her placidly, hands still clasped in front of him. His slightly smile was curved upward in complete mockery of her danger.

Damn it! Had to do something…

With a sudden burst of adrenaline, she began flailing, lashing out with arms and legs as hard as she could. Somewhere in her fury, she must have hit something sensitive because the boy let her go, and doubled over, groaning in pain.

Gasping in a precious breath of air, she scrabbled away, throwing the table up as a shield between the boy and herself. Oh shit… shit, shit, shit! She had to get away from the lunchroom somehow. She glared around. Everyone was out of their seats, crouched around their tables like feral animals, millions of eyes gleaming directly at her from across the lunchroom. The second she tried to get away, the entire school body would be after her.

She locked eyes with the boy as he slowly rose to his feet. And then she gave up hope. It was going to happen. Again. All exits were blocked. All her enemies were ready to pounce. And after they were done, they would just call 911. And the dean would make up some story about how she had fallen down the stairs, and she would spend a few happy days away from school in the emergency room, and then she would come back, and wait for the dam to break again. Her grip on the table loosened, and she went slack, falling against the rear wall of the corner.

Her own tired eyes focused loathingly on the boy's empty, narrow ones. The brute stalked towards her, and casually lifted her like a rag doll by the collar of her shirt. "There's a good little chink." He crooned, bringing his other big ham fist back. The limb descended, falling towards her face.

And stopped, not two inches from her left cheek. It was held, trembling there, by two perfect fingers. Slowly, as if his brain was having to process each little nerve's worth of information one at a time, the boy's gaze diverted from Rin's, and narrowed directly to the left of her.

With a single, fluid motion, Sesshoumaru interceded between the boy and Rin, breaking his grip on her throat, and thrust him away.

"What do you want, fag?" he growled, cracking his knuckles.

Sesshoumaru said nothing, leveling a calm gaze at the boy. Slowly, his hands came up, and his fingers splayed out into an intricate pose of readiness.

The boy chuckled, a low guttural noise. "You think you can take me, eh, big boy." With a sadistic grin, he flew to the tall figure, meaty right fist flying.

Like quicksilver, one of Sesshoumaru's hands lashed out as he sidestepped. There was a sudden blur of movement, and the boy was suddenly thrown to his back right next to Rin, eyes widened in pain and elbow bent at a right angle. Backwards.

Rin, breath already short, stared down to the groaning boy, horrified.

Seething saliva down the corners of his mouth, the boy got to his feet and rose up, lifting his good hand. "Fuckin' bastard," he growled between clenched teeth. He reached into his pocket, and brought out a switch blade. With a flack of his wrist, he clicked out the three inch blade, and charged.

This time, Sesshoumaru didn't side step. His hands snaked around the boy's arm, lifted and hurled. The boy was suddenly airborne, flying threw the air until he landed back first into a table ten feet away, the flimsy public school plastic collapsed under the sudden weight. All the students drew back, a collective breath running through the entire room. Then, like a giant sea anemone, they drew in, crowding around the fallen, gleaming eyes rapt with fascination. The boy was barely moving, a bit of crimson on his lips.

Behind them, Sesshoumaru rose to his full height again, and turned to Rin. She was trembling badly, face pale and shoulders heaving. "I believe it might be wise to leave now," he murmured, gently lifting her to her feet.

Rin looked out at the crowd. Their gazes were starting to divert from their fallen comrade, and back to the pair. Eyes were starting to glint hungrily. She nodded, cringing down behind her surrogate guardian.

Graceful and smooth, Sesshoumaru swept forward, walking calmly towards the crowd. "Come, Rin."

Timidly, the girl followed him, trying to make her already small frame as tiny as possible. The crowd parted, creating a gap just barely wide enough to squeeze through. If they turned violent… she wouldn't stand a chance. She would be ripped to shreds in seconds. Somehow, by the grace of whoever was up in heaven, they made it out, and into the hall.

With quick, cool strides he led her through the long corridors, and eventually into the open air outside the main gates of the school. As soon as she was out, she collapsed against the cool brick walls, dizziness from the adrenaline starting in. Sesshoumaru paused for a moment, looking down at her. He gently leaned down and lifted her face up towards his. "Are you injured?"

She looked up into the pools of gold, and slowly her brain started to work again. "You killed him…" she breathed.

Sesshoumaru let out a derisive breath, shaking his head. "Highly unlikely. His arm is broken, and at this point he probably has multiple hairline fractures across his ribs and minor internal hemorrhaging, but none of his injuries should be lethal unless there are unforeseen complications." He cast his gaze on her again, lifting up her chin and inspecting her neck. With clinical gentleness, he poked and prodded until he was finally satisfied. "Minor bruising, coupled with some swollenness. Breathing will be painful for a few days, but beyond that you will be fine."

Rin nodded, and slowly began to climb to her feet. As soon as she had, she wished she hadn't. She fell to her knees again, breathing hard, brain swimming around her head, refusing to work properly. Each breath sent a little burning tingle down her throat and into her lungs.

"You will be dizzy from the lack of oxygen getting to your brain, as well," he informed her, making no true effort to help her get up.

Nodding slowly, Rin tried again, this time using the wall to steady herself. Finally, her feet steadily under her, she rose up to her full height, and took a deep, shuddering breath. Her brain was starting to work more and more now. And it really wasn't liking the situation it had been dealt. Slowly she turned around to face the huge, dark red bricks of the school. "Oh shit," she breathed.

Sesshoumaru stood behind her, looking at the school over her shoulder. "Something is wrong?"

Rin took a step back, inadvertently pushing the back of her head against his chest. "They're gonna kill me," she gasped, hands coming up and clasping in front of her face.

Sesshoumaru paused for a moment, seeming to consider the soft head pressed against him. Gently, not overbalancing her, he took a step away. "Who is going to kill you?"

She whirled suddenly, glaring at him. "Them!" she hissed, flinging an arm back at the school. "They'll rip me apart."

The tall guardian moved his shoulders, a very small movement that might be considered a shrug. "I doubt that," he murmured, turning. "Come. I shall take you home."

She glared at him sharply. "How the hell are you so confident?" she half yelled. "You aren't the one they hate."

Sesshoumaru began walking, using one finger to gesture for her to follow. "I know because much of the anger flying in that room was caused by the mob atmosphere and teenage hormonal imbalances. By tomorrow, it will be replaced by numb shock over the injury of a classmate, and many students will not be fit to do anything for a while, much less attempt to kill you."

"Oh yeah, you really think so?" Rin snarled, dashing in front of him, eyes flaring. Damn, it hurt her head to move like that.

Sesshoumaru sidestepped her smoothly, not slowing down. "I know so. The only situation that might arise under which your life will be in danger is if there is a large group of children riling each other up, which will also be nothing to worry about."

"And why not?"

Sesshoumaru stopped, and put his hand half an inch from her face. He tensed just slightly, and suddenly the tips of five cold hard claws were gazing very softly against Rin's tan skin. "Because I have strict orders to protect, understand?" he asked. The claws retracted, and Sesshoumaru began walking again. "Come, Rin."

Numbly, Rin began to follow her guardian.


	9. Discovery

Wooohooo! Another chapter up. Okay, valid excuse for the delays on this one: Programming final followed by the local highschool drama. I got to die. With fake blood and everything.

Anywho, schools almost over for me, so I'll have a lot of spare time soon. So… yeah.

Senior trip this weekend! Going to sunny ocean city Maryland. Woohoo. Gonna check out the boardwalk. And freeze my butt of in the ocean. is cold

Anywho, I just received and E-mail saying that "Congratulations, your story, HANYOU.EXE has been nominated by your readers as one of the best AU InuYasha fanfics of the quarter. Voting for a final winner of this competition will be soon."

So, uh, yeah. Thanks to all you who read and said, "Hey, this is good."

I love you guys. Of coarse, I have NO chance of winning, what with stories like 'learning to let go' and 'beast' also being among the nominees.

Also, one last little note, a few of you have been noticing some very… _distinct _similarities between this fic and one Synthetic Emotions, by Saro. Just a note, if you haven't read this, you need to. A little adult stuff in there, but an excellent piece of work besides. It was definitely a heavy influence on this one…

Too bad Saro now only does firkin Yaoi Naruto Fanfiction. Of coarse, I don't mean any offence if your into Yaoi, it's just that I'm not. But Saro is a really good writer. But I'm not into Yaoi. So… damn.

Anywho, thanks all for reading, and here we go again with Inu and Kag.

IN this chapter, we begin to see a side of Kag we really haven't seen yet. And here it is!

* * *

When Kagome finally managed to home from school, InuYasha was playing solitaire. As quietly as she could, she snuck up and sat down in the chair in front of the monitor to watch.

She smiled just a little, focusing on the screen. His sprite lounged on one pile of cards, slowly glancing around at the upturned faces of hearts and spades. He was small, on the screen, but still incredibly detailed. Mouth caught up in a soft smile, tresses hanging down across the card pile he lay on, and eyes narrowed in a look that was half boredom, half pleasant fun. Stifling a yawn, he flipped of his seat, walked to one stack of cards, picked up a two of diamonds, carried it over to another pile, and put it down on the three of spades.

Kagome almost giggled. As InuYasha picked up a pile consisting of a four, five, and six, Kagome found herself wishing that she could play games like that. It must have been really weird, being inside the computer. Seeing how it worked from the inside. Being able to manipulate it from the inside. It all sounded so… fun.

Chin resting on her hands, Kagome leaned in and watched as InuYasha played, pick up a card, put down a card, flip over a card, in once case rip a card into very tiny pieces (It regenerated again, but it _had _been fun to watch).

He was almost to the end of the game when he got stuck, glaring around at the cards confusedly. Only one pile of cards remained unflipped, but no matter how he moved he couldn't seem to get them. His lips were skewing in annoyance, and his eyebrows were furrowing angrily. Kagome giggled silently to herself. InuYasha angry was exceptionally funny. Finally, she began to feel sorry for him.

"Eight of clubs to nine of diamonds," she suggested softly into the microphone.

The effect was instantaneous, but not quite what she had expected. "Holy shit!" he swore as he jumped in shock. His head hit the top of the solitaire window, fell, and collapsed. The solitaire game's _game _menu, badly damaged by the blow, fell on him, impaling itself on his head.

Kagome tried so valiantly to keep from laughing that her sides hurt and tears rolled down her face. But no dice, and the chuckles escaped her throat loud and strong.

InuYasha, face flushed, got to his feet and pulled the menu from around his shoulders. "Dammit, Kagome, don't sneak up on me like that!"

Kagome, still laughing uncontrollable, gasped, "Sorry… sorry, I just… thought… hehehe… that you would have seen me."

The sprite was clutching his chest, breathing hard. "I couldn't see you, okay? Camera was turned off."

"Why did you have it turned off, huh?"

InuYasha shrugged. "I had it off when I was looking for info earlier today… all the visual input slows me down. Like a distraction, right?"

The raven haired girl crossed her arms, and rolled her eyes. "Ooh, I didn't know you took your web surfing so seriously."

"Hey, it helped save my ass today, okay?"

She leaned forward a bit, blinking curiously. "What do you mean?"

InuYasha instantly scrunched his face, like he had said something he shouldn't have. But then he shrugged, and pressed on. "Okay, you know how, a week ago we were being followed online?"

Kagome nodded, very slowly.

"Well, after I talked with you at school today, I found him again."

Kagome stiffened. "What?" she demanded, shoving her nose up against InuYasha's camera. "You don't think its coincidence, do you?"

InuYasha shook his head. "We have problems, Kagome. I started chasing him again, and managed to follow him to his home server. It was a place called Taisho Corp."

The name didn't mean a thing to Kagome. "So, what's the big deal?"

The program let out an exasperated sigh, and the sprite on the screen shook his head. "Remember when you first installed me, Kagome?"

She did. It hadn't actually been that long ago… maybe a week and a half… not long at all. It was weird how quick InuYasha had taken over…

"Yeah, well, in my install program, I make calls to a bunch of different severs to download files I need. You know how I couldn't get those files?" Kagome nodded. "Yeah, well, all those servers are located in a place called Taisho Corp."

Ahh… _That _she understood. "You mean…"

"Whoever made me knows where I am, Kagome. They know I'm on your computer."

"_Shit!_" Kagome swore. "You're kidding."

InuYasha shook his head gravely. "Wish I was," he grumbled, "Plus, I've found almost nothing out about this company. They don't have any public information online, and all I've been able to find is rumors."

Kagome leaned back in her chair, rubbing her temples. "What have we gotten ourselves into?"

"It's not good, Kagome," InuYasha reported grimly. "This company does high end custom software. The sort of programming you'd have to empty the national treasury to pay for. Only the richest people in the world can afford it."

Oh, damn. If it was a company that powerful... she could be in serious trouble.

"It gets worse," InuYasha growled, shaking his head. "It's a privately owned business, and the head of the company is one of the richest bastards in the world."

"A regular Bill Gates, huh?"

InuYasha scoffed. "This guy makes Bill Gates look like he lives in a cardboard box. They say that he's one of the most powerful men in the world. He's got the Japanese government wrapped around his little finger."

Kagome felt her insides churn, and she had a sudden urge to start chanting every curse word she knew. "Dammit, InuYasha…" She bit at her lip.

"Tell me about it." He stared at his feet for a moment. "What are we gonna do?"

"Shit…" Kagome muttered, hugging herself. "I dunno… Do you think they're gonna do something about it?"

InuYasha bit his lower lip and shook his head. "Kagome, Taisho Corps software normally costs upwards of a million. If they know what's going on, you can bet that we're in seep shit."

Kagome pursed her lips, eyebrows furrowing. "So… what can we do?"

InuYasha shook his head. "I dunno…" he muttered. "Can't think of a thing."

"We should ask Terri." Kagome muttered, leaning back, smiling. "She'd help us out."

InuYasha scrunched up his face. "That pervert? Why?"

"'Cause she's a genius," Kagome muttered. "She's been hacking since she was ten, InuYasha. If anyone could help us, she could."

InuYasha nodded, but didn't look happy about it. "I guess so…"

Kagome nodded, and crossed her arms again. InuYasha nodded too. Kagome looked around her room. InuYasha looked around the solitaire window. Kagome picked at a loose thread in her shirt. InuYasha picked up the shattered menu that had fallen on him, and began to try to repair it.

It was kinda weird, actually talking to InuYasha. When they were just typing to one another, it had been easier to keep what he was in mind. But now that she could see him, hear him, talk to him… it was more difficult. It felt like another person was living in her room. But conversation could only run so long before it settled into awkward silence.

"What was that move you mentioned?" InuYasha asked finally, breaking the silence.

Kagome, half grateful to the program, leaned forward. "Eight of clubs to the nine of diamonds," she suggested. "Then you can get the seven off the pile and move the king."

InuYasha stared at the cards for a few moments, then sighed. "It's not as fun with two people," he muttered, and gave a gesture. All the cards quite suddenly flew across the screen, and were magically in their four respective piles. The game was over. InuYasha cracked his knuckles. "It's easier that way."

Kagome let out a long drawn out sigh. "If you could do that in the first place, why didn't you?"

"No fun that way," the program admonished. "Why would I play if there's no challenge?" He casually strolled across the window, climbed up one side, and punched the little 'x' button in the top right hand corner, effectively killing the game. "You got any other games here?"

Kagome shrugged. "Mine sweeper. That's about at fun, huh?"

The sprite rolled his eyes, and shrugged. "Maybe we could find some?"

"But…" Kagome muttered, poking her fingers together. "Don't you think we should stay offline until we figure out what to do?"

InuYasha spat. "Don't think it'll make a difference. If these guys already know where we are. Going online might even help us. If they follow us again, maybe I can find some more information…"

"Yeah," Kagome nodded. "I guess so."

"And besides… if they know where we are, then…" he didn't finish the sentence.

He didn't need to. It hung in the air between them…

_There could already be a hitman out.__  
_Kagome, hugging herself again, wondered what sort of assassin the most powerful man in the world would hire.

* * *

The newly christened Inspector Sango Sonada started her first day off on a case in a very special way. She slept till noon, and ate a hot pocket for breakfast.

It felt kinda weird, not waking up at six to put on her uniform. It felt even weirder not having the ever present badge over her heart. She had worn it proudly for the past three years, since she had gotten out of college. Now she didn't even have her cute blue uniform anymore. She would have to get a new outfit.

Something with a trench coat.

She sighed as she put away her dishes from her meal (consisting of a dirty napkin and one of the little microwave crisper sleeves that the tasty sixty second meals cooked in). Yes, life was going to be different from now on. She still wasn't sure if she should have trusted the guy on the phone, but the choice was made, and she couldn't look back.

She strolled from the kitchen/dining room/living room area of her apartment to her bedroom/brand new investigative area, and sat down at her cramped little desk. It wasn't as nice as the desk in her office, or a spacious, but it worked. Particularly when she didn't have that much on it. The contents of the table consisted of: a yellow legal pad with some notes on it, and a very old, very crappy laptop. The legal pad had a few case notes scribbled on it in Sango's near illegible cursive.

She sat down, and pulled her notebook over to her, the tip of her blue pen finding its way between her lips. What exactly did she know so far? Well, not much. That was for sure. Her client was certainly being tight with information.

All she knew so far was the bare details. This was not going to be an easy case. Luckily, even though her mysterious employer was certainly being hard up with his info, he was being _very _loose with his money. Sango had _plenty _of funds for anything she might need. A trench coat for instance. If she was gonna be a P.I. she would need a trench coat.

But the coat could come later. First thing she needed was to start her investigation. But where to begin…

Her thoughts were interrupted by a sudden jingle coming from the ancient computer. With a groan she cracked it open, and flipped up the monitor. The dull glow of the monitor lit up her face. She rolled her eyes, and rubbed her temples.

**HentaiHoushi:** Greetings, Milady. I saw that you were online, and I simply couldn't resist speaking to you! How are you doing today?

Sango groaned, and hit her head against the table in frustration. Why did _he _have to talk to her _now_? That's what she got for leaving her internet connection running. Well, he wasn't about to leave her alone, so she might as well respond.

**InspectorSonada583: **What do you want, Houshi?

**HentaiHoushi**: Ahh, lady Sonada, how wonderful it is to hear your voice again.

Sango cursed under her breath.

**InspectorSonada583:** You can't hear my voice, pervert. I'm typing to you.

**HentaiHoushi**: True, true, but I can imagine. And to my mind's ear, your voice is sweeter than a choir of angels.

**InspectorSonada583: **Look, Houshi, I'm busy right now, okay? So could you leave me alone?

**HentaiHoushi:** The Rat Race again? Is the police chief mad at you today?

Sango rolled here eyes, and pouted. She knew where this was going. She didn't have time to talk to her online friend today, because a simple conversation with him could turn into hours wasted. He _was _a damn good conversationalist, and that was impressive when typing online.

**InspectorSonada583**: Houshi, I really don't have time for this…

**HentaiHoushi:** Yes, yes, of course. Wish the chief good tidings for me, will you?

**InspectorSonada583**: I'm actually not planning on seeing the police chief any time soon.

**HentaiHoushi**: Really? And why is that?

**InspectorSonada583**: I quit.

**HentaiHoushi**: …

**HentaiHoushi**: You… quit?

**InspectorSonada583:** Yep. Someone offered to help me get started as a Private Eye, so I jumped at the opportunity.

**HentaiHoushi**: That is wonderful. Who is this friend of yours?

Sango paused, and debated. She really needed to do some work, and if she got any further into conversation with her friend, she definitely wouldn't be able to stop. And she needed to work. Work…

Oh, what the hell.

**InspectorSonada583:** Well, see, I don't really know.

**HentaiHoushi**: You don't know?

**InspectorSonada583: **No idea whatsoever.

**InspectorSonada583:** It was anonymous, but I took it anyway.

**HentaiHoushi: **Is that wise? It seems to me that you could very easily get left without any job whatsoever.

**HentaiHoushi: **How do you even know this person is trustworthy?

**InspectorSonada583: **I don't. But it's worth the risk.

**HentaiHoushi:** So, someone just offered you money so that you could pursue your dreams? Out of the blue?

Okay, when he said it that way, it _did _seem pretty silly.

**InspectorSonada583: **Well, yeah… actually, he wants me to do something for him.

**HentaiHoushi: **Lady Sonada, I hope you have not agreed to do anything… inappropriate.

**HentaiHoushi: **I would have to be very insulted that you would take up someone else's offer before mine.

Sango's eyes narrowed. Was that all he ever thought about?

**InspectorSonada583**: I'm going to pretend you didn't say that.

**HentaiHoushi: **Say what?

**InspectorSonada583**: Exactly.

**HentaiHoushi: **But I am lead to ask what exactly you did agree to.

Sango paused for just a moment, crossing her arms and staring at the screen. Should she tell him? Well, yes, _technically_ she was supposed to keep her investigation a secret… but then again HentaiHoushi was her friend. Never mind the fact that she had never seen his face. Or knew his name. Or where he lived. Or any of his personal information. She did know he was a pervert. But he was polite about it, which was more than a lot of men were. And besides, he seemed nice.

**InspectorSonada583: **I got hired to do some 'unofficial' investigating.

**HentaiHoushi: **Milady, you have told me enough about your job for me to know that 'unofficial' means 'illegal.'

**InspectorSonada583: **Details, details. Look, Houshi, this is my dream, okay? I'm going for it.

**HentaiHoushi: **You are feeling capricious, today, aren't you?

**InspectorSonada583: **More along the lines of lethargic.

**InspectorSonada583: **It's hard to make yourself do work when you don't have a boss looking over your shoulder.

**HentaiHoushi: **Yes, making yourself work is an art.

**HentaiHoushi: **It takes years of practice.

**InspectorSonada583:** And you have this art mastered do you?

**HentaiHoushi: **If I didn't, I wouldn't be alive right now.

**HentaiHoushi: **But come, tell me of this case. Perhaps I could help you?  
**InspectorSonada583: **Actually, I wasn't even supposed to tell you I had a case. It's a little secretive.

**HentaiHoushi: **I will be circumspect.

**InspectorSonada583: **Well, I don't really have much info myself.

**InspectorSonada583:** See, a hacker stole something from this big ole Japanese company.

**HentaiHoushi:** I see…

**InspectorSonada583: **And I'm supposed to find this guy, report him to the company.

**HentaiHoushi:** You make it sound so easy.

**InspectorSonada583:** Oh, don't worry. I'll be working hard.

**InspectorSonada583:** My 'client' isn't telling much. I've got almost no info.

**HentaiHoushi: **What DO you have?

**InspectorSonada583:** Well, they think that the hacker is somewhere in mid-Virginia.

**HentaiHoushi:** I suppose that is useful information.

**InspectorSonada583: **Not really.

**InspectorSonada583:** It's a huge area. I could search forever and not find anything.

**HentaiHoushi:** I see. You have a problem then.

**HentaiHoushi:** Have you any other clues to help you in this quest?

**InspectorSonada583:** Well, only one. The software that was stolen was some sort of robotics software.

**InspectorSonada583:** And that's all I got.

**HentaiHoushi:** Robots, you say?

**InspectorSonada583: **Yep. Why, do you know anything about them?

**HentaiHoushi: **Me? No, I am afraid not. It simply reminds me of someone I chatted with online today.

**HentaiHoushi:** I met a boy doing research on robots for a school project.

Sango rolled her eyes.

**InspectorSonada583:** Oh, yeah. THAT'S a lot of help. You probably found the culprit.

Apparently, he didn't catch the sarcasm.

**HentaiHoushi:** I would doubt it. The odds are extremely unlikely.

**InspectorSonada583:** I know that, genius. But I do need some sort of leads. I can't just go to Virginia, stop people on the street, and start demanding what they know of robots, right?

**HentaiHoushi**: That does seem impractical.

**InspectorSonada583:** So instead of just giving me a running commentary, why don't you help me?

**HentaiHoushi**: I do suppose I have a few… contacts in certain circles that could be of assistance. I will see what I can do.

**InspectorSonada583**: Thanks, Houshi. Oh, and one more thing. I'd like some info on this company I'm working for too. I don't like flying blind here.

**HentaiHoushi:** Rest assured, my lady. I will work to the best of my abilities.

**InspectorSonada583:** Thanks, Houshi.

* * *

After a long, warm shower, Kagome was feeling much, much better. It was hard to feel too bad about anything when your hair was clean, your skin was soft and scrubbed, and you had a fluffy white towel wrapped around you.

With a few quick primps in the mirror, making sure the improvised towel-turban encasing her hair was in place, she headed off to her room, checking the hall carefully to make sure her mother wasn't out and about. With a few quick strides, she made it to her own bedroom, and slipped inside.

She bumped the door closed behind her, and stretched languorously, allowing the towel to fall to the floor around her feet. Then her eyes popped open, and looked directly at the camera sitting so innocently on top of her computer. She was well within its view. And she was very, very naked.

Blood quickly rushed to her cheeks, turning her a pretty shade of pink. She grabbed her towel faster than she had grabbed anything in her life, and quickly draped the thing in front of her.

InuYasha's little sprite was lounging across her quick start menu, casually staring out into her room. She could swear she saw him smiling his smug little smirk. The little bastard. He was… _peeping _on her.

She resisted the urge to scream, or do anything else that would only embarrass her more. He would just _love _it if she were to squeal like a little girl. Besides, _he _wasn't even really a he. He was a program, made up of ones and zeros. It wasn't like she was actually in front of a real live boy. But that didn't really make her feel any more comfortable.

Being very careful to keep the towel around her, she inched towards her dresser, keeping glaring eyes on the web cam.

It was a highly advanced skill, putting on clothes with one hand and holding a towel up with the other. Kagome had never really had any experience with it, but it was the sort of skill you picked up very quickly when you need to. But it still took her five minutes. Five minutes of absolute embarrassment. Blushing madly, she the hem of her pajama top around her waist, and stalked over to the computer, growling dangerously.

With a huff, she sat herself down in the chair in front of the computer, and crossed her arms. InuYasha still lay back on her desktop, casually inspecting his claws. His smirk was still there, but his eyes were staring up into one of the corners of the desktop, almost like he was lost in thought. "Well I hope you enjoyed that," Kagome snapped, leaning towards the camera.

InuYasha casually glanced out of the screen, and raised an eyebrow. "Hmmm?" he murmured. "Oh, hey, Kagome."

"Don't 'hey Kagome' me," she hissed, blushing even more.

The program shrugged. "Fine." He muttered in such a nonchalant tone that Kagome could feel her spine going rigid. "Anyway, can I turn my camera on yet?"

She froze. "Turn you camera… _on_?"

"Keh. You didn't take any extra clothes with you when you went to shower, so I figured you could use the privacy."

Oh.

Well then.

Kagome wasn't entirely sure weather she should feel angry, sheepish, or just plain silly. "Uhm…. Thanks."

InuYasha scoffed. "Don't flatter yourself. I just didn't wanna have to see it again. Had nightmare's last night about it."

Kagome bristled, knuckles turning white as her fists clenched. But she wasn't about to take the bait. "Oh, really?" she asked, eyes narrowing. "Probably the best nightmare you ever had."

The program had the good decency to look embarrassed. "That's beside the point, wench!"

Kagome slowly stood up, and walked towards her bed. She couldn't help but cast a knowing glance over her shoulder. "Right, InuYasha," she murmured, and hit the light switch, plummeting the room into darkness, save the little square of light coming from the tiny monitor.

Flopping down heavily onto her bed, she wiggled down into the covers and shoved her face into the soft down pillow. "G'night."

In the soft glow of the monitor, she could make out the was features of InuYasha as he leaned down against the side of the monitor. "Night, Kagome." Slowly, very slowly, his eyes shut and his digital breathing slowed. Weird… he almost looked like he _was _asleep.

She could feel the land of nod pulling against her, as well, gently rubbing her eyelids until they were closed. Her muscles relaxed, and she melted into her cool sheets. Somewhere, in the half drugged state of near-sleep, she could feel her mouth moving, and words escaping her vocal cords. "Hey, InuYasha?"

There was a grumpy noise, and a low growl. "_What?_"

"I was just wondering… do you really sleep? You know, cuz you're a machine and all?"

There was the ever familiar scoffing sound. "Of coarse I do, wench. I go into sleep mode every night."

Ah… sleep mode. So that was it…

"What's it like?" Kagome murmured, trying feebly to fight against the wall of comatose that threatened her.

"What's what like?"

"You know…" Kagome fumbled a little while for wards. "Being what you are… living on a computer?"

There was a long, long pause. "I dunno... It just like… living, I guess. What's it like living with a real body?"

Kagome paused herself. How could she answer that? Never really thought about it before. How do you explain physical being to someone who doesn't have one? "It's okay, I guess…" she muttered. "I can pick stuff up."

"Wish I could do that," InuYasha muttered, growling softly. "All I can do is wander around the internet."

_Wish… _

Something finally caught Kagome's attention. "You wish you could?"

"Yeah… What's it to you, wench?"

"Well, you're just an AI, right?"

Another long pause passed before InuYasha's voice came back. It sounded faintly suspicious. "Yeah?"

Kagome was struggling for words now. The dark blanket of sleep was coming ever closer to her. "Well, you keep on talking bout how you… _want _stuff and _wish _for stuff. But you can't really want it, can you?"

"Why can't I?" asked InuYasha, very quietly.

Sleep was beginning to claim her. "Cuz… y'know. You're a… a program. You got a… personality and all… but…" Dammit, what was the word she was looking for? "But your not really a person, right? I mean, cuz someone else made you. Your like a… a…" What was the word? She grabbed at something and spat it out.

"Fake."

…

No, no, that wasn't the right word. But it was sort of what she meant. And she really couldn't think of a better one right now. And then there was nothing but sleep. Blessed, wonderful, blissful darkness.

The only sound that changed the room was the deep, heavy noise of Kagome's breathing. It was five minutes before the computer made any noise at all. And after that came a simple, almost sad, "Goodnight, Kagome."

And then silence.

_Fake? _

_She thought he was fake? _

And for some unidentifiable reason, InuYasha couldn't enter sleep mode until hours later.


	10. Planning

Okay, few quick comments here:

Sorry this took so long, but I've had lotsa work (I know you've heard that before) and a minor family crisis. Ahem. I won't go into the details, but I'm really worried about it. Not sure if there are any of you religious types out there, but would you mind praying for me?

Anywho, now that that's out of the way, on with the fic.

Yes, this chapter does have a vauge religious overtone at the end, but I think it might be appropriate given InuYasha's existential quandary. Hehehe… I like that word. 'existential.' Anywho, rest assured this ain't gonna turn into a big ole religious thingy.

Now: on with InuYasha angsting.

* * *

Kagome was once again at school, leaving InuYasha with nothing to keep him company but a slow internet connection and a decent computer. And a whole _hell _of a lot of confusion. InuYasha was smart. He had been made that way. He had such an incredible amount of code in him that it was amazing it all fit on this computer, and almost all of it was devoted to making his conscious run.

And he could barely understand any of it. His code would do things that seemed almost inexplicable. That had no rational for happening. The all the loops, curves, and contortions of his coding were too much for even him to handle, at times, and he was left to wonder why he thought the things he did.

And right now he was wondering why the stinging voice of Kagome rang through his head over and over:

_You're like a fake… _

_Fake… _

_Fake… _

And the damn thing was that he couldn't deny it. His rage subroutines ran over and over again, but he couldn't deny it. His rationalizations circuits were running overtime, but he couldn't manage to explain this away. His consciousness was filing facts away at millions of bytes per second. But he couldn't… fucking… _deny it_.

Hell, he had a frikin' program just devoted to being angry. How the hell could he call himself real if he had to use a _program _to be angry?

Angry program running full steam, InuYasha tried to tune out Kagome's droning voice in his proverbial ears, and turned on a game of solitaire. The human who had come up with game had been a genius. It was so simple… so terribly _mind numbing_ that you just forgot about whatever you were thinking about before and just concentrated on flipping the next card.

InuYasha set himself up so that it would actually be a challenge, noting as he did so that any person besides him would just be able to sit down and play. But no… he was a freaking program. He could see what all the cards were before they were even flipped. He had to set it up special so that he couldn't see the cards. Just for him.

And he started playing.

Nine of hearts to ten of spades. Flip a card.

Ace of diamonds to one of the final four piles. Flip a card.

Two of diamonds on top of the ace. Flip a card.

King of clubs onto the empty space. Flip a card.

Grab a card from the draw pile. Throw queen of hearts onto King of clubs.

Pick up the jack of hearts and…

and…

_and… _

_RIP IT INTO FUCKING LITTLE PIECES CAUSE YOU'RE A FUCKING FAKE AND NOBODY FUCKING CARES!_

The image displayed on the computer monitor was a sight of carnage, with little bits of card and solitaire window scattered about, and a seething, red eyed demon standing in the middle, claws and fangs barred and shoulders heaving.

With a thought, InuYasha connected to the net and hurled himself through the Web, not really caring where he was going. He just wanted to find somewhere he could kill something. Anything.

And somehow, he found himself drifting around Kagome's school. Somehow, he found himself finding where Kagome was logged into the network. Somehow, he found himself watching every action she was doing like a hawk.

She was on some sort of instant messenger, talking with someone on the other end of the computer lab. A quick check to the other computer told him that she was chatting with the pervert, Terri.

They were talking about normal stuff. What was for lunch today? How annoying this or that teacher was. How as life going?

They weren't talking about him. And some way, even though InuYasha knew it was completely irrational, that kinda hurt. Well, it didn't _really _hurt. It was just another little involuntary program took over, and synthesized some fake pain, and fed it into his little emotion center, and that told him he was hurt. It didn't _really _hurt. InuYasha could only pretend it did.

He sat, stewing in his imaginary little feelings, little bits of code inside him whirring away, as Kagome and Terri talked. Something about the economics test last Thursday. Then an interesting conversation about the lunchroom pizza. Apparently, it came in cans.

InuYasha sat and waited, growling inwardly to himself. She probably didn't think of him at all. He probably didn't even cross her mind until she got back home from school and had to talk directly to him.

Well, why should she think about him? It's not like he was real enough to be worth it or anything.

* * *

Kagome sat at her computer, thinking about InuYasha. On the screen, Terri's message appeared, and she casually typed something trivial back, not giving the words any conscious thought.

Something was definitely wrong. He had barely spoken at all this morning. Just a 'good morning, Kagome,' and a 'have a nice day, Kagome.' He hadn't even bothered to insult her, which was one of his favorite pastimes. Why would he have been so out of it this morning? Maybe he wasn't feeling well? Computer virus?

She chuckled just a little at that. She somehow doubted that InuYasha would get sick. But then again, he was really human sounding. Whoever had made him had done such a good job that even she forgot he wasn't an actual human sometimes. Maybe he got depressed, too?

Well, she would talk to him when she got home, and hopefully get some answers. She hopes he would be okay, in the mean time. If you were depressed, one of the worst things to happen to you would be to be left alone for a while. It gave you _way _too much time to stew in your own misery.

Well, he would be okay. Probably just play some solitaire or something.

She glanced down at her monitor, and blinked. A long stream of messages lay there. Most inquiring if she was still alive over there.

She looked up above her monitor to where Terri sat at the other end of the lab. Spindly girl yanked the curtain a hair out of her face, and gave Kagome a 'Dude-you've-been-staring-at-nothing-for-two-minutes-what's-up-your-really-out-of-it-today' look. The black haired girl grinned a sheepish 'sorry' smile back, and looked back down at the monitor. She brought up her AIM window, and quickly typed a message in.

**TheAsianRaven:** sorry bout that.

**TheAsianRaven:** totally out of it today.

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** dude, your acting all tired today.

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** the matter?

**TheAsianRaven:** Not really

**TheAsianRaven:** Just thinking, y'know?

**InterStellarHitchhiker: **About your new little friend, eh?

_Inside Kagome's computer, InuYasha perked up. New friend? _

**TheAsianRaven:** Izzit that obvious?

**InterStellarHitchhiker: **Just a little. You've been acting just a little freaky since you first got him.

**TheAsianRaven:** Yeah, I suppose so. Lot of late nights, I guess.

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** Haha, you've been staying up late with a guy.

**TheAsianRaven:** Oh, come on. He's not really a guy.

**TheAsianRaven:** I mean, he doesn't even have a body.

_If InuYasha had had a body, he would have had his eyeballs glued to Kagome's screen. _

**InterStellarHitchhiker: **so what's up between you two?

**TheAsianRaven:** I dunno.

**TheAsianRaven:** he was really quite this morning.

**TheAsianRaven: **I think he might be depressed or something.

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** Really?

**InterStellarHitchhiker: **Could he get, y'know, depressed?

**InterStellarHitchhiker: **Y'know, cuz he's a program.

_That did not make InuYasha feel any better. _

**InterStellarHitchhiker: **Just seems Kinda weird to me.

**TheAsianRaven:** Oh, it wouldn't if you could really meet him.

**TheAsianRaven: **We got all his stuff installed a couple a nights ago

**TheAsianRaven:** Now he talks and everything.

**TheAsianRaven:** It's great.

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** Ooh, really?

**InterStellarHitchhiker: **Can I come over and see.

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** I don't have anything after school till seven.

**TheAsianRaven: **Sure thing.

Kagome pause for a moment, thinking. She needed Terri's advice anyway…

**TheAsianRaven:** Mom's gonna be out shopping today, anyhow, so you can just come over with me.

**TheAsianRaven:** I got something I need your help with.

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** Oh really?

**InterStellarHitchhiker: **What trouble did you get into now?

**TheAsianRaven: **Ehehe… you don't wanna know.

**TheAsianRaven:** But I'll tell you anyway.

**TheAsianRaven:** See, last night I was talking to InuYasha, and he told me that

Kagome's message was quite suddenly interrupted by a little popup window. 'A virus has been detected!' the Antivirus software declared proudly, like a cat putting a dead mouse on your front porch. 'Terminating… terminating… terminating…' Kagome stared at the notice, confused. She had gotten a virus from _IM_? With _Terri?_

_Inside the computer, InuYasha was also staring at the notice, getting just a little nervous. If he had had a neck, the hair on the back of it would be standing on end. It occurred to him that, if seen by an outside party, _he _might look quite a bit like a virus. _

_He slowly stretched his awareness farther than just the screen, and sure enough, there was the school's security net, sitting right on Kagome's computer, glaring at him. It didn't like the fact that he was there. _

_Very slowly, he turned his attention back to what was displaying on the screen. 'Terminating… terminating… terminating…' _

_What he very suddenly felt wasn't exactly like pain. It was worse. At least with pain, you knew you were gonna pull through it. This wasn't something you would recover from. He was being deleted. _

Kagome glared at her computer, and then exchanged an annoyed glance with Terri. If her friend had sent her a virus as a joke, Kagome was going to have to do some serious smacking later. Terri, however, simply gave her a genuine expression of innocence. Maybe it was something effecting the entire school? She glanced around at the other monitors around her, but didn't see a thing. It was her computer only.

Casually draping her chin in her hands, she glared at the screen, sharp eyes narrowing.

_InuYasha was chanting every swear word he knew, and he had been programmed with a hell of a lot of swear words. _

_Dammit, this _wasn't _happening. Some of his smaller subroutines were already gone. But the damn security thing wasn't letting go of him, and he couldn't manage to escape. The hell was he going to do? _

_The virus blocker slowly began working up towards more central processes. If he lost much more… _

_Desperation and anger began pulling at him, both growing greater and greater. _

_…_

_But then again, it didn't matter. He wasn't even real anyway. The fact that the subprogram that maintained his artificial pulse was going crazy was a mere detail written by some fat guy sitting in a cubicle in Japan. The anger he was feeling wasn't even a figment of his own imagination, it was the figment of someone else. _

_He had absolutely no control over the fact that his fear subroutine was starting to poke at his main conscious. It was all the idea of some idiot who was good with computers. He didn't have any control over any of it. _

_And that thought sent him over the deep end. _

_Somewhere in his depths, things began to click into place, and _something _happened. _

_InuYasha wasn't real. _

_But he didn't want to be deleted anyway. _

And outside the computer, Kagome continued to wait for the stupid program to run it's course. Any minute now, the thing would say: 'virus deleted' or some such crap, and she could go on with her happy life.

The one thing she wasn't expecting was for her computer to suddenly flash a bright and clashing mishmash of almost every color possible. That was… unusual. Gently, she hit the side of the monitor, and with a little beep, it was back to normal. Everything exactly like it was. Her IM window was still up even. But no virus blocker.

Freaky…

_InuYasha, if he had been able to breath, would have been panting very hard. But in a very, very satisfied way. _

_He wasn't exactly sure what the hell had just happened, but whatever it was it had felt _good_. All around him there were little bits of code strewn about. Tiny little shreds of something that was almost beyond recognition. _Almost

_But from one of the bigger pieces, InuYasha could recognize the decapitated remains of the virus software. If he had had a mouth, he would have smirked. He had just ripped it apart. _

_A little twitch of movement behind him caught his attention, and he turned. The rest of the security program, the entire thing that dealt with system passwords and internet filtering and whatnot, was trying to sulk away. _

_Unfortunately for the poor innocent piece of software that was just working hard to do its job, maybe trying to support a digital wife and some little cyber-kids, InuYasha was not feeling very forgiving. And he had some steam he needed to work out. _

Kagome, blinked as, once again, her screen did its little freaky thing, and then reset. But this time, everyone else's screen did it just an instant later. And a split second after that all the lights of the computer lab flickered. On off, just a second.

Oooo-kay…

_Really _freaky.

Tentatively, she began typing to Terri again, but was quickly interrupted by an idiot laugh just form the side of her. There was suddenly a group of boys right next to her, all drooling over the monitor directly next to hers.

More out of irritation than curiosity, Kagome glanced over… and choked. Good, God! She returned her gaze to her own computer, tan cheeks blushing a very amusing shade of red. Okay, that just wasn't right…

She did a double take back to the screen the boys were drooling at. The girl in the picture was…

Great gravy! Kagome hadn't even known that was _possible_.

That website defiantly fell under the standard 'blocked' list. She shook her head at the horny school boys next to her, and attempted feebly to ignore them.

Then her brain started working. If kids could see porn in school, then…

Maybe…

She quickly typed her thoughts to Terri, and brought up an internet window. She quickly typed in the name of a site, one that would normally be blocked. A wonderful site that had all sorts of useful hacking tidbits available for download.

A delighted, sinister coming from Terri's general direction told the girl that her friend had found out the same thing she had.

All high school age hackers (there were more than you might think) learn an equation very early on in their careers. It had to do with the fact that often high school security systems were all lumped together, so that if one part went down, say, the internet filtering, it _all _went down.

The equation was like this:

Unprotected school plus mass security system equals protected school.

In both Kagome and Terri's minds, however, this principle was being applied backwards…

Protected school minus internet blocking equaled protected school minus mass security system equaled unprotected school equaled…

4.0 GPAs for two very, _very _happy hackers.

Within, without so much as a hint of communication between them, they were routing through the schools mainframe, Terri quickly locating any and all grade books and replacing a great number of their lower grades with A's. Kagome took the permanent records, changing a few… _embarrassing _incidents that had happened in their cumulative high school careers. Like that one time they had skipped to have an all day DDR marathon at the mall, and had been caught by the dean, who had just popped out to check out a seasons saving sale at the J.C. Pennies. Kagome had noticed, as they had been led away from the arcade, that the sale had been exclusively on women's underwear, but she hadn't said anything.

Kagome giggled heinously, rubbing her hands together. Within five minutes she had turned entire high school career into a gleaming, spotless pile of perfection. Now… what else could be done…?

She exchanged a very demonic look with Terri, and they nodded in unison. _Prank the faculty.

* * *

_

InuYasha sat back on Kagome's desktop, the little sprite he now eternally projected onto the screen lounging against the recycling bin. He was mulling things over, even more confused now than he had been this morning.

_Fake… _

_Real… _

_Damn… _

And then add the events on the schools computers to that. _Something _had happened there, and InuYasha wasn't even sure what. The little bits of his code that had been missing were already being replaced. He could feel little bits of him working, carefully working out what code he was missing and rewriting it. But even more, he could feel the power still running its course. Whatever had let him kill that security net was still running.

And it made him feel _good_. It made him feel powerful, like if he had a body he could run for days and still not break a sweat. It made him feel satisfied. It made him purr…

Okay, that was kinda embarrassing, but it was true. It was loud enough to come over Kagome's speakers, a steady pleasant rumbling. And he couldn't get it to stop, though, and Kagome wasn't here to make fun of him for it, so he might as well go with it. But the entire thing still bothered him…

Maybe it was his thoughts right before it had happened.

He didn't want to be deleted. He didn't want to not be around any more. But if he wasn't real, how could he _want_ anything. So that must mean that he was real. But he was artificial, made by someone else. So he was fake. But he didn't _want _to be fake, so he was real. But how did he know his desires were real… so that must mean he was fake…

But then if…

He was so lost in thought that he didn't even notice the door crack open quietly, and two figures dart in. He didn't notice the two faces watching his sprite pace back and forth across the desktop. He didn't notice the amused giggles at the constant pleasant sound that was coming from Kagome's speakers.

He in fact, didn't notice anything until Kagome cleared her throat, and-

"Hey, InuYasha!"

_HOLY SHIT! _

The screen, reflecting his thoughts, quickly became a maddened frenzy of comically flashing lights as the little InuYasha sprite frantically ran around the monitor, knocking into things and dropping icons left and right.

Both faces outside the computer were quite suddenly tied up in an expression half way between shock and unbearable laughter.

Finally, InuYasha composed himself, and growled out at the two women hanging right outside his computer. "Dammit, wench! Don't sneak up on me like that!"

Finally, laughter won out, and both girls collapsed against each other, faces contorted in uncontrollable chortles. Somehow, that didn't make InuYasha feel any better. But at least his purring had stopped now. "What's your problem, huh?"

Kagome leaned forward, wiping tears from her eyes. "Sorry, InuYasha…" she gasped, slapping the side of the monitor friendly. InuYasha couldn't see the actual slap, of coarse, but the sudden shaking of his vision as the webcam mounted on the monitor shook told him what had happened. "It was just… you looked so cute there, pacing around. Couldn't help it."

InuYasha _feh_ed characteristically, and turned his attention to the other interloper. "Who the hell is that?" he demanded callously, not in the mood to have visitors.

Kagome nodded, and made way for the other person to look into the webcam. InuYasha got a very weird view. His vision was always just a little distorted, cause of the way the damn camera worked, but he got the impression that whoever the hell this was would look weird anyway. A veritable waterfall of cherry blonde hair fell off of her head in every direction, only thinning slightly in the front to lend the outline of sharp features, a demonic grin and gleaming eyes. Just from looking, InuYasha could guess who this was.

"InuYasha, this is Terri."

The girl gave the camera a happily sadistic look, and pulled back her hair slightly, giving InuYasha and even better look at gleaming, pearly white teeth. On the screen, InuYasha's sprite audibly swallowed. Slowly, the girl's tongue ran over the front of her teeth, almost like she was some sort of predator. Then she inhaled, and said: "Pleased to meetcha…"

InuYasha was caught off guard. He wasn't actually sure what he _had _been expecting in Terri, but this sure as hell wasn't it. But he had to say _something_. So he fell back onto his default. "Keh… why the hell did you bring this pervert in here anyway?"

One of Terri's thin eyebrows rocketed skyward, and she turned to Kagome with a sardonic look. "Well, he seems pleasant."

Kagome shrugged. "Takes a little getting used to, but once you overlook some of his faults…"

"Some of _my_ faults?" InuYasha half shouted. "What about her? She's the one going around asking to see my code."

Terri's grinned widened. "I'm still interested, if you wanna show me…"

InuYasha's temper flared. "I'll show you my code when you show my your boobs, wench!"

No reaction. In fact… Terri shrugged, and her long hands strayed down to the bottom of her shirt, and began to pull upwards.

_Shit! _Kagome had reacted better to that one! In sudden desperation, InuYasha grabbed at a hopeless straw. "_But first you have to grow some!_" he shouted in a voice that came out slightly more squeaky than he intended.

Now _that _did something. The hem of the black shirt, which was raised just enough to expose an surprisingly trim waistline, suddenly fell back into place, and the hands that had been holding it shifted to almost nonexistent hips. Terri's expression was one of slight amusement. "_Burn…_" she chuckled, to InuYasha's confusion. _Wait… he had just made fun of her right? So why was she laughing? _Terri, however, continued chuckling, and shrugged. "I walked right into that one, eh?"

Kagome, behind her, was struggling not to laugh as well. InuYasha somehow got the feeling he was being the brunt of some sort of eternal cosmic joke.

With some sort of weird folding motion, Terri managed to fit her very lanky frame into the chair in front of him, and inspected the screen critically. "So if you won't lemmee see your code, can you at least tell me how you work?"

InuYasha snorted. "Screw off, wench."

Terri scowled, and turned to Kagome. "Do you know anything about how he works?" The raven haired girl shrugged. "Damn, looks like I have to do it the old fashioned way."

InuYasha didn't like the sound of that. "The old fashioned way?" And then he watched, fascinated, as Terri opened a window and was typing, faster than he could blink. It took him several seconds to catch on to what she was doing. She was _searching_. For his code. The damn nosy wench.

With a thought, InuYasha cut off any and all output from the keyboard, effectively killing any of the hackers attempts at finding anything out about him. He didn't want her poking around where she didn't belong, after all.

The girl put on a pouty face, and stabbed at the keyboard. "Oh, you're no fun anymore…" she muttered in a ridiculous accent. A few more pokes at the keys. "I don't suppose you could tell me how you turned off the keyboard, at least…"

InuYasha scoffed. "Kagome says you're a genius, so you should be able to figure it out yourself, wouldn't you say?"

Kagome glared at InuYasha evily, and turned appologietically to Terri. "He's not the most cooperative. I think they made him that way."

On the screen, InuYasha tensed just a little, then relaxed. Neither of the girls noticed, and Kagome pressed on. "Anywho, if we can get Mr. Pouty over there to help us out, we can get down to business."

The words _made him that way_ rattled around in what passed for InuYasha's brain, instantly resurrecting the thoughts from earlier that morning. Pissed him off.

Terri thought for just a moment, then cracked her knuckles. "Oh, right, the whole Taisho Corp thing." She casually set back down at the computer, and leaned her chin into her hands, casting hair all over the keyboard. "Okay, so what all do we know?"

InuYasha snorted. "Why don't you ask here, huh?" He gestured angrily, not being able to see well enough to see if the motion from the screen was at Kagome or not. "I didn't wanna ask for your help."

"InuYasha!" Kagome gave a sharp warning. "The hell is wrong with you today?"

Terri shrugged. "S'okay, Kag. You can just tell me-"

"Well you're the one who's bringing the entire world into _our _business! We can handle this ourselves." InuYasha interrupted.

One of Kagome's eyebrows twitched slightly. "Well maybe I'm actually sensible enough to think we might _need _help. You said yourself that there isn't any way we can take these guys on ourselves."

Okay, okay, InuYasha _knew _he had said that, but god dammit, that didn't mean that Kagome could just go and find anyone for help! "How the hell do you know we can trust her, huh?"

Very slowly, almost like a snake focusing to strike, Kagome's eyes narrowed and her lips pulled back revealing a not very nice, very thin smile.

"Bwa…" Terri bleated, suddenly noticing that a very sudden chill had fallen in the room. "I think I'm just gonna… go pee." She quickly extricated herself from the room, and closed the door behind her. Then she very quietly crept close and fastened her ear against the flimsy sound barrier.

Inside the room, Kagome slowly crossed her arms in a manner that told InuYasha, in no uncertain terms, that he was in trouble.

"InuYasha?" she asked, tone sugary sweet. Like boiling hot syrup. "How long have I've known you?"

InuYasha very briefly had to employ his calculator function. "Little less'n two weeks... What's it to you, wench?"

"And do you have a single idea how long I've known the girl out in the hallway?"

InuYasha was really not liking where this was going. "I dunno…"

"Since I was six, InuYasha. I've known Terri since her hair was _short_. And that was a _long_ time ago." He tone was still deceptively saccharine, the toothy smile still on her face.

"Oooo-kay…" InuYasha muttered, beginning to feel more than a little sheepish.

With sudden force, Kagome slammed her hands down on either side of the computer, and leaned forward until her face was merely half a foot from InuYasha's little artificial eye. "So _what_ exactly is it that makes you think that _I _can't trust my _best friend_? Hmmm? Right now, she's a whole hell of a lot higher on my trustworthy list than you are. Okay?"

She didn't raise her voice, but InuYasha got the distinct impression that Kagome was yelling at him. And _something _in InuYasha's code didn't like being yelled at. Even if it was quietly. "Well, what about me, hmm? I'm supposed to just jump around happily with whatever you wanna do. You might trust her, but I sure as hell don't."

One of Kagome's eyebrows raised. "Do you trust me?"

If InuYasha had been having a better day, he might have realized the significance of that question. But InuYasha, up until this point, had been having an exceptionally shitty day. "Damn it, wench. I just told you that I only known you for a little less than two weeks. Do forgive me for being just a little skeptical on the whole _trust _issue."

Kagome's nasty grin faded into an outright scowl. "Well, I'd suggest you start trusting pretty damn fast, 'cause you really don't have anyone else besides me to trust."

"I don't need nobody wench!"

"Well, I don't need you either. Me and Terri can figure out how to do this on our own!"

"Go ahead, bitch, See how far you get without me!"

"I will, dammit!"

"Fine!"

"Fine!"

And then there was that awkward silence where both parties thought up a new round of arguments.

"And besides," Kagome whirled around again, hissing angrily. "It's not like your really one to talk, anyway. I'm the one in trouble here."

"The hell are you talking about now, huh?"

"What the hell do you think is going to happen if we don't so something about this, huh, InuYasha?" Kagome's tan face was becoming just a little red now. "I don't know who you think we're dealing with here, but if we've pissed someone off bad enough there could be serious trouble. And tell me, who do you think they'll come after if they want revenge. Your just stolen merchandise, okay? I'm the one with the _real _body, okay. I'm the one who gets dragged out to a back alley and shot. What would they be able to do to you, huh?"

For a split second, every single function in InuYasha's system froze. And then slowly started up again. Much more painfully this time.

"Keh…" He spat numbly. "Whatever, wench."

Kagome had, very apparently, not been expecting him to give in at that. She looked halfway torn between yelling some more, and asking if something was wrong.

InuYasha didn't wanna hear it though. "Call pervert girl back in, and lets see what we can do her, okay?"

As if on queue, Pervert Girl materialized in the door, crouching low and slithering across the room towards the computer. "Someone call me?" she muttered cheerily, bouncing up right next to the computer chair. Then she got a good glimpse of Kagome's face: torn between anger and confusion and remorse. InuYasha, on the screen, wasn't looking too hot himself. _Best to just leave it alone. _

She folded herself into the chair in front of InuYasha, and cracked her knuckles. "Alright, so let's get down to business, eh? So what do we know about this big bad ole Taisho Corp. Skip all the obvious stuff, cuz I prolly already know it."

Numbly, InuYasha relayed the details: big bad company, tracking them online, Taisho was rich and buff, blah… blah… blah…

But his _focus _was on Kagome's face. It still had the odd expression: guilt along with a healthy chunk of residual anger. She would occasionally roll her eyes, or close them for a second and chew at her lip. Her hands fidgeted in her lap, twitching this way and that.

Something Terri said brought him suddenly back to reality, and he started. "Earth to computer boy," the lanky girl was purring, tapping against the glass of the monitor. "I said get me the internet, please."

The hell was this? What was he, a little servant now? "Do it yourself." He couldn't help but notice that at that Kagome's expression hardened just a bit at that.

"I can't," Terri reminded him, without looking up from the monitor. "You turned off the keyboard remember?"

Oh, yeah. Crap. "Fine…" he growled, bringing an explorer window up on the screen. "Where do you wanna go?"

Terri grinned lightly, and mock punched at Kagome. "He's really helpful, eh? Like a little online fetch-dog." InuYasha bristled as the girl turned back. "Okay, get me to the TaishoCorp homepage."

"They don't got one," the program growled, feeling less that happy. "They do all their business by direct contact, so nothing's online at all, unless it's behind real damn tight doors."

Terri winced unconsciously. "Damn. That sucks…" She thought just a moment, fingers resting on her chin. "Okay… what sort of security do they have? Do you know?"

InuYasha would have spat if he could. "Tight as all hell. I tried going onto one of their servers, and I couldn't even get _close _to it. It's something weird, and I can't even get a clue how the hell it works."

Terri swallowed a very naughty word, and her eyes narrowed. "Okay, then, gimme google."

InuYasha scoffed, and bid the search engine to appear on the screen. "I already checked there. You won't find anything."

Terri chuckled. "We'll see about that. Do a search for TaishoCorp."

The program snorted, but did her bidding anyway. The window that the search brought up made even Terri blink. "Search is not supported?" She demanded, eyes tracing across the text. "You mean you're not even allowed to search for the damn thing?"

"Can't search for anything with the word 'Taisho' in it. It's the same for every other search engine I've tried."

"Well, shii-at," Terri grumbled. "This guy must really be stacked if he can keep search engines from even showing anything about his name… Okay, then do a google on security systems."

"Security systems?"

"Yeah… I wanna see if anything on the market even comes close to what we're dealing with, here."

Kagome finally snapped out of reverie enough to speak. "Why all the curiosity about their security?"

She was suddenly faced with a grin that would make the Cheshire cat jealous. "Well, if they know about you, they probably already have your records on file, right?"

Kagome didn't like the sound of that… "Yeah?"

"So, the only way to help you is to go in after them."

The look that fell across Kagome's face was carefully blank. "Excuse me?"

"We're gonna hack TaishoCorp." Terri said happily, leaning forward too look at the search on the screen. "Go to the third link, would ya?"

InuYasha nodded, a silly little grin suddenly having found its way to his face. "You serious, wench? You gonna try and hack them?"

Terri gave him an interesting look. "Me? Hate to break it to ya, buddy, but you and Kagome are helping too."

The black haired girl let out a little moan of protest. "Are you _crazy?_ We just got finished telling you how incredible their security is, and you just wanna rush in and attack?"

"Pretty much." Terri reached out a long arm, and tapped the screen. "What do you think, InuYasha. Was the thing you ran into anything like this?"

InuYasha looked at the security system she was pointing at, looking over its specs. "It's not even close. I could slip past this thing before it could sniff its own ass."

Terri had to bit her lip to keep from laughing, but nodded nonetheless. "Interesting way of putting it… but I get your point." She glared around the site a bit more, and shook her head. "Crap, and that's the best thing this place has to offer. Let's try the next…" she rambled on, carefully guiding him through screen after screen of pointless jargon and silly ads. Each time, he would deny the security system. Nothing she was showing him came even close to what the security at TaishoCorp had been like, and InuYasha soon found himself tuning out, and focusing again on Kagome.

She didn't look so guilty anymore, but still just a little pensive she seemed to be taking what Terri was doing a whole hell of a lot more seriously than he was. All the she was doing was looking at random security systems…

"So, it's not this one, either?"

"I keep telling ya, there ain't nothing here that compares to it, okay?"

Terri shrugged, and looked closer at the screen, putting he rnose maybe an inch away from the static-y monitor. "Well, that's what I thought…" she muttered, rubbing her shoulders. "I'll have to look into it later tonight."

InuYasha tensed, and growled. "Why can't you look into it now?"

"Cuz this isn't my computer, silly. My computer has certain advantages."

Kagome glanced at her. "You mean your gonna talk to the Source?"

"The hell is the _source?_" InuYasha demanded, angrily.

Terri put on a sly grin. "I can't tell you. Sworn to secrecy."

"Dammit, wench, if your sworn to secrecy, then how does Kagome know about it?"

"All hacker's know what the source is, InuYasha," Kagome admonished in a brisk tone, smiling that same sly grin as Terri as she did so. "They have a tendancy to contact you early in your career."

"Who's _they_?" InuYasha was feeling confused, and really didn't like being out of the loop.

"Doesn't matter who _they _is. I'll check with 'em tonight, and once they tell me what I wanna know, we can get started?"

InuYasha glared at her. "And what the hell do you wanna know. I just told you a million times that the damn security system was almost invincible."

"Almost, my friend, almost." Terri waved a finger in front of the camera. "'Almost' means that there's at least one way through it. And I'm gonna find that way."

InuYasha snorted. "You're crazy."

Terri beamed at the compliment. "Thanks," She sighed, and leaned back in the chair, glancing past Kagome a further on to the clock sitting by the bed. "Well, I got at least three hours before I have to be anywhere."

InuYasha groaned. "So, lemme guess, your gonna stay here, right."

"InuYasha…" Kagome's voice had just a touch of warning, but Terri cut her off.

"Hey, InuYasha…" she almost purred. "You ever played Unreal Tournament?"

"Unreal what?"

"No fair, wench! Your camping again!"

"Deal with it." Kagome said frantically, moving her mouse faster than she ever had before in her entire life. Even using the cheapest of first person shooter techniques ever, Kagome was still struggling to beat the digital menace that was InuYasha.

The fact that InuYasha could see considerably more than what was simply going on in the screen was very unnerving. You could fire a rocket launcher at his face point blank, and he would still be able to dodge.

Somehow, InuYasha's character went into an impressive series of backflips, and landed behind her. "Seeya, Kag."

The raven haired girl winced as little pieces of her pixilated soldier went splattering across the dark hallway they were in. With an annoyed little groan she traded seats with Terri, and the long haired girl crumpled herself into the seat, growling in agitation.

It had taken InuYasha about five minutes to catch onto the point of the game: kill the other person as quickly and ruthlessly as possible. As soon as he figured out how that worked, however, he turned into an absolute beast. Reaction times that ran at the speed of electricity, in addition to his ability to see everything that was happening in the game simultaneously, made attempting to kill him so _indecently _difficult that both Kagome and Terri had teamed up, each taking every other turn, and using the time off to rest their cramped mouse hands.

InuYasha, for his part, was enjoying himself far more than he had since he had become aware. All thoughts of this morning were chased form his mind in a blast of rail guns, rocket launchers, and plasma beams. InuYasha _liked _plasma beams. With a little woof of satisfaction, he sent Terri floating to her creator in a vibrant display of purple and blue explosions.

"Damn, he's good." She complained as she got up from the seat, and lent it back to Kagome. "Stupid little program."

Kagome turned to glance at her, and stuck her tongue out. "Just 'cuz you suck." She turned back again, then blinked at the show of gore: InuYasha had already killed her.

"Butter hurry up, wenches. One more kill and I win."

Kagome and Terri looked at each other, and nodded in unison. Kagome took the helm, piloting her little guy into a very narrow hallway, watching out for any ambush that might lay in wait. Meanwhile, Terri was busy hammering commands into the console, fingers splaying intricately across the keyboard.  
Eyes narrowing at the sight of InuYasha coming down the hall towards her, Kagome opened around of machine gun fire down just as Terri finished the cheat.

InuYasha, comfortable of his victory, continued coming, not actually planning on firing until he was right next to her. Unfortunately for him, the fun little thing Terri had been typing in suddenly spawned a very large, very powerful cannon into Kagome's hands. The poor guy barely had time to process what had happened before he was no longer there, reduced to an itty bitty smudge on the floor, and a very large puff of smoke.

A long echoing bout of curse words came echoing from the speakers, and was quickly followed by an enraged bellow of "_What the hell was that, Bitch?" _

Kagome and Terri looked at the screen, which quickly dissolved to be replaced by InuYasha's angry face, then at each other, and collapsed into each others arms, laughing so hard that InuYasha winced despite himself. Terri was the first to recover, wiping tears away form her eyes. "That, my friend, was the BFG2000. The single most powerful gun in existence."

InuYasha made a very annoyed face. "You didn't have that before I started attacking."

"You cheat, we cheat." Kagome admonished, waving a finger at him.

"I didn't cheat."

"Dude, you know when we fire a mortar from half a stage away," Terri argued, tapping against his camera. "If that ain't cheating, what is?"

A sly, cocky grin slid onto the program's face, and he crossed his arms. "Just cause you aren't cool enough to beat me."

Terri scoffed. "Look, Kagome might not be as cool as you, but _me_? C'mon, your not _that _cool." Even before she was done speaking, she was fending off harmless blows from Kagome with skilled ease.

InuYasha almost let out a chuckle despite himself, and rolled his eyes. "Damn, Kagome, you fight like a girl."

The sable haired girl shot him a dirty, pouty look, and stuck her tongue out. "Look, just cause _she's _a martial arts freak," she muttered angrily, nodding her head at Terri, who was holding both of her wrists behind her head with a single hand, and looking like she was contemplating what unplesentness to do with the other. Suddenly, the bandy girl's eyes snapped open, and she winced at the clock.  
"Aw, _shit_! I completely forgot," she swore, dropping Kagome and hitting herself in the head. "I was supposed to be at Taijutsu practice three minutes ago. _Igottagobyesorry_."

With a sudden blur of movement, the girl was out of the room, and quickly out of hearing range, leaving Kagome and InuYasha to watch her dust trail settle. "What the hell was with that?" the latter demanded.

"Terri's been taking one sort of martial arts class or another since before I knew her," Kagome offered apologetically. "She takes it _almost _as seriously as her hacking."

"I thought you said you knew her since she was six."

"I did," Kagome muttered bluntly. "Let's just say she's really good at it."

InuYasha inwardly scoffed. Okay, well, that _was _pretty cool, he supposed. But then again, Terri was annoying. In a cool kind of way. And that Unreal Tournament game _had _been really fun. "Keh," InuYasha dismissed it. "It's probably just cause she don't got nothing on her chest to get in her way."

Kagome chuckled and shook her head. "You better watch it, or she'll smack you one."

InuYasha scoffed. "Like hell she will. I could take her ass down in five seconds flat."

"With what? Your disc drive?"

"Keh!" InuYasha snarled, and crossed his arms. "You're just mad cause I whupped your ass in that stupid game."

Kagome rolled her eyes, and ambled over to her bed, not gracing the little ingrate's rambling with a response. She pulled up a book from beside her bed, and flopped down on her back. Fingers threaded through the pages until she found her spot, and resumed, soft eyes tracing across the words lazily. Her lips occasionally mumurred silently, mouthing Words that InuYasha couldn't make out.

It was a few moments before he spoke again, and when he did his tone was quieter. "What book izzat, wench?"

Kagome broke off her reading to look at him. "You like that word, don't you?"

"What word?"

"Wench?"

InuYasha sat on that a moment. "So? What's your point?"

Kagome looked at him for just a moment, and then looked back at her book. "It's called the Odyssey," she said simply, opening back to her page.

The program thought on that for a moment, then silently did a search for the title. Approximately fifteen minutes later, he snorted derisively. "Why are you reading _this_, huh? Boring as hell."

Kagome looked over at him again, and pursed her lips questioningly.

"This damn book." InuYasha, sitting on one side of the screen, waved a little book he was holding. Kagome could swear that she saw the title _The Odyssey _on it. "I almost fell asleep by the end of the first chapter."

Kagome shook her head in half amazement, half amusement. "You're actually _reading _the Odyssey?"

InuYasha snorted. She said it like it was some sort of sin. "So what about it, wench?"

Kagome blinked. "I dunno… It just sorta surprises me."

"Keh… Not like I enjoy it. You just looked like you were having a good time, so I figured I'd see what all the fuss was about." The sprite looked at the book, and rolled his eyes. "Too bad this thing sucks."

Kagome sighed. "I swear, your almost as bad as Terri." She paused at InuYasha's confused gaze. "She absolutely refuses to read any book that doesn't have to word 'aliens' on the back."

InuYasha scowled at the book. "If their all as bad as this, I don't blame her."

"Hey! It's not that bad," Kagome admonished. "It was just written a long time ago, okay."

"Like what, _two thousand years_?"

"More like two thousand five hundred," Kagome remarked satirically, taking a certain amount of satisfaction from his sound of astonishment.

He glared at the book, and casually tossed it aside. As soon as it landed, it turned into a normal document icon on her desktop. "Well no wonder I can't understand all that shit." He glanced up at her. "Who the hell is 'Athena' anyway?"

Kagome almost did a double take. He didn't know the greek gods? Well, no wonder he couldn't understand anything. Kagome scooted off her bed, and padded over to the chair. "Okay, time for a crash course in Greek Mythology."

InuYasha scowled. "Don't bother, wench. I don't need to know any of that shit."

"I'll be the judge of that," Kagome informed him primly, pulling up her book, and opening it. "If your gonna read the Odyssey, you need to know this stuff."

"Who said I wanted to read it?"

"You started it, InuYasha. You need to finish what you start."

"But-"

"Okay, the first one is Zeus. Now he's…"

One short and very informative hour later, InuYasha had a headache. "I don't get it," he grumbled. "Are all these guys real, or what?"

Kagome giggled despite herself. "Of coarse not. See, some guys got together and made them up a long time ago, and eventually everyone started believing in them."

InuYasha almost laughed at that. "One helluva prank if you ask me." A short pause. "Seriously, some old fart just sat around and said 'I think I'll make up some gods' and everyone started believing in them?"

Kagome rolled her eyes, and let it slide. "Something like that."

"The hell would he do something like that for?"

The girl shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe to be mean, maybe to have something to hold onto."

"Hold onto?" InuYasha asked skeptically. "What the hell does that mean?"

Kagome pursed her lips, and leaned back. "Y'know. Maybe he was looking for meaning or something."

"_Meaning_. Your getting all wishy washy on me, wench."

"It's not as silly as all that, you know. If there are gods out there, you have to admit it answers a whole lotta questions."

"Like what, wench?"

Kagome bobbed her head back and forth, thinking. "Stuff like…" she paused for a moment, and giggled. "God, I probably sound like a hippy saying this. Stuff like, 'what are we here for?' and 'how did we get here?' All that existential crap that the philosophers always talk about, right?"

InuYasha was silent for just a moment.

_Am I real? _

"Keh!" he rasped haughtily. "Are all human's that wussy?"

"Oh right," Kagome rolled her eyes, and crossed her arms. "And you're _so_ big and manly. Not like us little pansy humans at all."

On the screen, InuYasha stiffened. "No. Not like you humans at all."

Kagome blinked, and leaned forward. "You okay, InuYasha?"

The program swore, and scowled at her. "Don't try and peg me like you. I'm not that weak."

Kagome shrugged, and rose to her feet. "It's not weak, InuYasha," she remarked. "Being depressed doesn't make you a wuss. It's just a pretty fair sign that somewhere under all the machismo you have _something_ that looks like emotions." She winked at him, and grabbed some spare clothes out of the dresser. "I'm gonna go take a shower. No peaking when I come back, okay."

On the screen, InuYasha flipped her off. But…

Kagome didn't have to worry about him peaking. By the time she got back, InuYasha was lounging across her desktop, deeply entrenched in sleep mode.

* * *

Terri didn't get home from Taijutsu practice until eleven, and when she did manage to squeeze into her room, she had that wonderful, loose feeling that one only gets after a good hard several hours workout.

A little perspiration hung on her forehead as she sat down at her computer. Now, only _after _the really important stuff had been taken care of, she could look after her friends. Time to contact _them_.

The Source, as it had come to be called, was an online board of the most elite hackers. Almost like the elders of one of the hardest guilds to get in the world. They kept eyes on just about everyone up to _anything _suspicious happening on the net. They would certainly already know of Kagome's situation.

Terri _really _liked using the source. They knew every hacking technique in the book, and were more than happy to pass them on if you proved yourself trustworthy. Then there was the information. An entire network of Information went through the source. They had somehow managed to create a method for hackers to talk to one another without the worry of getting hacked themselves. It was the number one law among hackers: never trust any other hacker.

She logged in (a very long, convoluted process) and very quickly snapped onto the internet. A few quick typed commands later, and her screen fell totally blank.

_Who are you? _

The words very slowly oozed onto the screen, almost like fire burning through paper. Terri leaned forward, and responded. _'Terri the hitchhiker.' _

_'What do you want?' _

_'I need some help. You are aware of the situation with Kagome Higurashi?' _

_'We are. It is unsurprising that you two were discovered.' _

_'Yeah, yeah. Shut up. I need some info.' _

There was a very long pause.

_'We refrain from interfering with TaishoCorp affairs.' _

Terri winced. That was a bad sign… Even the Source didn't wanna mess with TaishoCorp. Well, in that case, she would just have to get in touch with her informant. The same person who had originally given her the info that landed them with InuYasha.

_'Could you get me in touch with HentaiHoushi?' _


	11. Assassin

Okay, sorry this took so long, but I've been busy what with graduating from high school and all. On a happy note, though, I've graduated form highschool! Woot.

Anywho, some of you will recal I put through a request for prayers because of family business last update. For all those who prayed, thanks so much. I am happy to announce that I am an uncle. Unfortunately, my nephew is also almost four months premature. He's only a little over two pounds now, so he's very tiny. He's a little sick right now, but we're really hoping he'll pull through. If you could keep praying, I'd be grateful.

Anywho, were back to Rin and company now.

Sorry I don't have time for more comments, but I'm very tired right now.

Have fun!

* * *

"You are… prepared for this?"

Rin glared up at her guardian, and scowled darkly. "What do you care?"

Sesshoumaru maintained his solemn expression without even glancing down at his charge. "You were shaken after the encounter yesterday."

"So?" she growled, crossing her arms. "You got a good reason that I shouldn't have been 'shaken?' In case you hadn't notice some people tried to beat the shit out of me yesterday."

"An amount of apprehension is appropriate given the situation." Sesshoumaru affirmed, leaning forward through the darkness of the limo. "Thus my question. If you feel unwilling to return today…"

Rin almost found herself chuckling. "You think I should skip school?"

Sesshoumaru made a noise that _might _have been, with enough imagination backing it, thought of as a snort. "I am not so very fond of the place you call school that I would force you to go every day."

The girl almost chuckled at that. "Well, that's comforting I guess." She glanced up at him with dull eyes. "We could skip one of these days. Maybe go get you a perm, huh?"

Sesshoumaru actually gave her a second glance at that. "A… perm?"

Rin shrugged, and looked out one of the tinted windows. "Never mind," she grumbled, eyes narrowing at the ominous looking school building. "We're here."

The limo, carefully piloted by one of her father's chauffeurs, pulled p to the school, and the doors opened. She was late: it was eight fifteen, and history began at eight. But nobody really noticed if she showed up or not. Carefully, Rin slipped out of the limo, and waited patiently for Sesshoumaru to follow. The tall figure slid smoothly out, and unfolded himself to his full height, head standing tall. "Let us go, Rin."

She girl shook her head, shoved her hands deep in her pockets, and followed him as he threaded his way towards the school. The doors, bugger and heavier than they had seemed yesterday, resisted as she tried to push them in. Sesshoumaru lifted a hand, and casually brushed the doors opened, and the girl pressed inside.

As soon as they were both across the threshold, the limo pulled away, chauffeur picking up a cell phone and talking into it. Instantly, an inconspicuous looking blue van rolled up where the limo had been, and a man dressed all in black stepped out.

Neither he, nor the chauffeur had noticed the glint of a golden eye coldly watching them as the school doors sealed behind the pair.

"Hey, Sesshoumaru," Rin muttered, glaring at the guardian. He was staring at the just closed door. He turned instantly, and was quickly pacing down the halls at her side, expression unreadable.

Rin, for her part, was getting more and more nervous the further they went. The halls were _deserted. _Nobody there, whatsoever. The halls of Rin's school were _never _empty. There was always someone who was cutting class or going to the bathroom or making out in the halls or something. And it was never this quiet too. Even in the pocket of silence that Rin normally traveled in, there was always some sort of noise. But now it felt like the entire school was holding its breath. Waiting for something to happen.

They reached the door to the history room, and Rin pushed it open with a little groan. All eyes in the classroom instantly drew to here, almost thirty pairs of angry globes narrowing at her. She stepped into the classroom, bobbing her head just the tiniest bit. Sesshoumaru stepped in behind her. The eyes widened, and all shifted very suddenly away from her.

Rin swallowed, and attempted to beeline strait for he seat in the corner. She was stopped with a mere tap on the shoulder from Mr. Campowski. "Miss Onigumo, you are _late_."

Rin paused for just a second, thinking. _So what? _She was late to this class all the time, and the bastard never said anything. "I'm sorry, sir," she growled, and walked on.

"_Miss Onigumo_." The voice was sharp and hard. "You are habitually late to this class. I find your behavior unacceptable."  
_What crawled up his ass and died?_

"'m sorry sir." Rin mumbled again, once more trying to press on.

One last blow was to fall, though. "Then please hand your assignment in, Miss Onigumo."

Rin actually stiffened at that. _The bastard_. He knew full well that she never did her homework anymore. "I don't have it, sir."

A few sniggers from the class accompanied Mr. Campowski's grating voice. "Take you seat, Miss Onigumo. And if you would please show more diligence in your work."

Rin softly resisted the urge to hit the man, and quietly went to her seat, shadowed as usual by Sesshoumaru. As soon as she was in her chair, she was staring at the clock. Still forty minutes till the period ended. Damn.

Surreptitiously, she leaned down to her backpack, and pulled out her sketchbook. She had worked a bit more on the wolf last night… fleshing out the background a bit. She flipped to the appropriate page, and pulled out her nice metal case of pencils. Out came the trusty H6, and she very slowly began to shade. The wolf was sitting, carefully etched in chilled grays, on a jagged crag that would eventually be an ice berg. Carefully, hand steady as a mountain, she began carving the shades of gray into the surface, carefully ingraining each crevice and ridge into the cool block of ice, carefully working from the top, directly underneath the wolf, down to where the ice met where the water was going to go. Eyes focused, ears tuning out all noise, lower lip occasionally getting caught between her teeth, Rin worked carefully and cleanly.

From the ice she went onto the sky, carefully chalking on what would come to be the northern lights into the sky. Yeah… this would be beautiful. Gracefully shrouded grays cascaded over one another, digging elegant depth into the thin paper. Later today she would start on the ocean, tenderly rippling wave reflecting the scene above them.

Tongue inching out between her grinning teeth, she leaned further over her creation, and, almost kissing the surface, put the final of the finishing touches on the dark stars in the sky.

Then a calloused hand descended, savagely ripping the paper up and away. Rin's hands came up accompanied by an involuntary moan of horror. The splotchy, scowling face of Mr. Campowski emerged from around the edges of the paper, dark and stormy. "_Miss Onigumo. _You _will _pay attention in my class, do you understand me?" The hand clutching the paper clenched, at the tender art on the page was crushed and torn under the weight.

Rin bit her lip so hard that she could taste blood, eyes widening in horror. Her right hand clenched around the H6 pencil.

"Perhaps you might be doing better at school if you didn't spend all your time on useless doodles." The man returned to his position at the front of the class, mouth caught up in a malicious grin as he tore the paper neatly down the middle, and deposited the two halves in the garbage can.

_Doodling… Useless… _

_Fuckin bastard… _

_God damn bastard… _

Trying to ignore the bits of wet forming at the corners of her eyes, Rin forcibly unclenched her hand, and carefully deposited the H6, now in two snapped halves, back into the pristine tin carrying case.

_God damn…_

The pencil case disappeared into her backpack. The Rin turned her blurred gaze to the sketch book. The page had come out neatly, save a few little torn bits at the very top: the only living remnants of the arctic monument.

* * *

Shippo was back in school today. He was on crutches. Rin had only caught his eye once outside of class before lunchtime, and the black haired kid had only glared at her. Couldn't blame him. She had heard he had to go to the hospital from the beating he got. And she had just stood there. But it was for his own good, after all. Damn conscience.

The kid had never been that strong. He had some sort of disease that kept him from growing right. He was, in fact, only eighty five pounds. He was almost short enough to be classified as a midget, but nobody noticed because he was skinny enough to be proportional. Add that to black hair, tan skin, and curvy eyes, and put him in this school?

It was a wonder the kid was even still alive. Hell, he had _almost _had as hard a time as she had when he first came here. It hadn't been pretty. He'd been in the hospital more times that she could count. But he just couldn't catch onto it. He still had all these fancy, noble ideas of sticking up for himself, and writing the wrong.

Bull.

Shit.

Honestly, you would think the kid was something right out of Don Quixote or something. Rin snorted to herself just a little as she left from another boring as hell English class. Most kids in this school probably couldn't even _spell _Don Quixote, much less know what it was.

Shippo just didn't know how things worked here. _They _hated her and Shippo because of nationality, yes, but if you stayed quiet and out of their way, they might overlook that. But no, Shippo had to stand up to them. Draw their attention. They _hated _that. They hated the rebellion. That was something Rin learned early on. Normally she could just get away with the occasional mocking cat call, or a shove into a locker, Shippo…

Rin snorted. Shippo was actually better off than she was right now. She broke that kids arm yesterday. Well, Sesshoumaru broke the arm, but that didn't matter. In _their _eyes, it was her fault. The kid had been a quarterback, too. The team had lost the game last night because he couldn't play. And everyone was looking straight at her. In the halls, in the classes. All the students, all the teachers, all the staff. Hatred gleaming in the eyes, not the normal disdain.

She had _resisted_. She had _stood up to them_. Even worse than all that, she had caused damage. The only thing keeping her alive right now was the big tall guardian, and he was the one who had gotten her into all this mess in the first place. He attracted attention, which was one of the worst things ever.

She reached her next class: study hall, and as quickly as possible signed out to the auditorium. The auditorium was a nice place to be alone: nobody _ever _went there, unless they had too. It was dark, which Rin liked, and quiet, which Rin liked even more. It wasn't the sort of quite that she normally had around her: no noise but thoughts loud as symbols. It was _quiet _quiet. Really quiet. Peaceful quiet.

A big, must breath found its way into her lungs as she entered. She only slightly aware of the tall outline of Sesshoumaru as he followed her in, making no noise with those soft soled shoes of his. With graceful ease, she slid over the auditorium chairs until she reached the stage, and climbed up onto the huge wooden surface. Finally, she turned towards the tall figure following her, and crossed her arms. "You don't have something better to be doing?"

Sesshoumaru shook his head as he approached. He stopped several feet from the stage, standing in a gracefully still in front of her. "That is likely," he murmured, not changing his expression.

Rin snorted, and threw herself out on the hard wood of the stage, fiddling with her backpack. She managed to get it open, and carefully extricated the sketchbook. It still had that dirty, violated feeling hovering over it. The cover was plain brown: worn and well loved. The book itself had one hundred pages in it. Well, ninety nine, now. About eighty of them were filled with something or other: little poem, useless sketches, and the occasional piece that had turned into something more. That was what her wolf was going to have been. She was especially proud of those pieces. They were few and far between: normally only ten or fifteen per sketchbook.

One less, now.

She bit her lip, and winced. It still hurt from earlier this morning, and she could taste a bit of blood afresh.

"One would appreciate it if you would stop doing that," Sesshoumaru remarked casually.

Rin looked at him sharply, licking the blood of her lip. _How did he? _

Sesshoumaru gave her a pointed look. "My sense of smell is… advanced," was all he would say.

_Great_. She had a freak-o guardian who could smell blood. "Well good for you," she mumbled, shifting until she was facing away from him. "Why don't you go sniff a fire hydrant and leave me alone?"

There was no response.

With a little snort, Rin curled herself over the sketchbook, and opened to the first page. Dear _God_, she had _sucked_ at the beginning of this year. Couldn't hold proportions to save her life. And her shading was crappy, too.

She smirked fondly at the first picture… it was one of those rare finished ones: a raven. Rin had always had a thing for ravens. Maybe it was the black?

The picture itself wasn't that bad, now that she looked at it… The left wing was just a little bigger than the right one, and the feathers looked more like fur, but both of those were excusable. The eyes were really good, though. They were sharp and cruel, narrowed with cunning. They were good eyes.

"The proportions are slightly off," Sesshoumaru informed her quietly, from just behind her right ear.

Instantly, the girl fell forward and did an awkward rolling turn around, breathing hard. "Don't do that," she hissed, eyes narrowing. She didn't like people looking at her sketchbooks.

Sesshoumaru slowly backed away, head inclining ever so slightly. "My apologies," he murmured. Rin's eyes narrowed. Was he wearing his annoying little smile again?

"You care very much for that book," he noted.

"What's it to you?"

"Yet you did not defend it earlier this morning." The remark was casual, cold, and stinging.

Rin bristled, turning suddenly on her follower, snarling savagely. "And what the hell should I have done? The bastard took the picture right outta my hands!"

"You could have taken it back?"

Rin's skin flushed, and her lips peeled back revealing a row of white teeth. "Taken it _back_? Oh, _that's _a great idea. Then what? I might have lost my _entire _sketchbook at that, okay?" Rin leaned in close to his smooth face. "Listen, you don't know _shit _about how this school works, so don't go telling me what to do."

Sesshoumaru simply met her angry eyes with his own, cool, collected and piercing gold. "Childish," he remarked, and turned away.

Rin, hair starting to stand on end from anger, whirled around once more and hunched her shoulders. _Little prick… what was his problem? Calling her a child. _He _was the one who didn't know anything. _

_Retard. _

It was another several minutes of open, awkward silence before a faint buzzing told them the bell had rung: lunchtime. Wonderful. Lunch was the one thing she was not in the mood for right now.

Her stomach growled, betraying her mind and will. As they left the auditorium, Rin could have sworn Sesshoumaru looked amused.

The lunchroom was… quiet. The nasty quiet. The kind of quiet where there were no words, but lots of angry eyes. Almost the entire lunchroom, in unison, turned to look at her and Sesshoumaru as they entered. Eyebrows furrowed, and steely orbs narrowed angrily. Rin almost started sweating from the weight of the collective gaze.

The appetite that had made itself known just a few moments previous was quickly waning, but the girl forced herself to walk to the salad table anyway, carefully pickup up a plate and picking out the choicest vegetables. Satisfied with the greens on her plate, she turned and carefully began threading through the tables, keeping Sesshoumaru, always somewhere near her, in her peripheral vision.

The kids had seen what had happened yesterday. They had seen Sesshoumaru snap that guy's arm backwards. They weren't stupid… okay, scratch that. They weren't _that _stupid. They wouldn't try anything with him standing right next to her.

At least the idiot was good for _something_.

She carefully sat down at her table, back to the crowd, and began stirring at her salad.

"Your diet is not healthy," Sesshoumaru intoned as her came up beside her, not sitting.

Rin, more than just a little miffed, stabbed a carrot and daintily put it in her mouth, chewing maliciously. "I have an idea…" she rumbled after she was done. "Why don't you stop pretending like you care about me, and go crawl back to the hole you crawled out of."

No response… Maybe she had managed to get though to him? Maybe he would shut up for once?

Hahahaha. Yeah, right.

"There is a boy heading for us…"

Rin normally wouldn't have looked. _Shouldn't _have looked. It went against her nature. She was cold and aloof. But she remembered what happened yesterday, when she hadn't looked. Slowly, as quietly as possible, she turned just enough to see who was coming. It was Shippo, not some hulking brute bent on her destruction. One look at Shippo's pained expression, and she was convinced that, given the choice, she would rather have had a whole army of brutes.

The boy limped up, and sat down, placing his diminutive crutch on the table next to him. Rin's eyes were drawn to that crutch. It was a simple looking thing. Nothing special or high tech. Just a simple wooden thing. There wasn't even padding on the end. It looked painful.

"Rin," Shippo muttered, looking down at his tray. It had very little food on it.

"Shippo," Rin murmured back, eyes narrowing.

Silence. Rin ate a carrot. Shippo ate a potato chip.

"So… how bad is it?" Rin finally asked, pointing at the crutch.

Shipp shrugged. "It hurts."

"Sorry."

"It's okay."

Silence. Another carrot. Another chip.

"So… what about you?" Shipp broke the spell this time. "Head you got into trouble yesterday."

Rin snorted. "Just a little. No big deal…"

"Heard you broke a guys arm."

Rin almost snorted. Of _course_… _She _broke the guys arm. It _was _her fault after all.

"Not me…" She jerked her head towards the impassive monolith standing next to her. "It was this guy."

Shippo, for the first time, apparently, turned to Sesshoumaru. "Who izzat?"

Hrmmm… how to answer that question?

"This is my tutor. He sorta doubles as a bodyguard, though."

Shippo looked over the man, and shrugged. "He got a name."

"His name is…" She paused. A tiny bit of god-given inspiration settled on her as she looked at the big, huge, exaggerated, _fluffy _boa resting on his shoulder. "You can just call him _fluffy_."

It was with _utmost _satisfaction that Rin watched, for just a single moment, Sesshoumaru's eyes snap open, and his fists clench. _Hehehehe… _So, the mighty impassive one wasn't completely invulnerable. But within a second it was gone, once again covered by the sleek, calm exterior.

"Fluffy?" Shippo, if only for a brief second, let a smile slide across his face.

"Yeah…" Rin chuckled, poking at the tutor's boa. "Go figure."

Silence. Carrot. Potato chip.

It was Rin's turn to break the calm. "So… what did you do to piss them off? They looked pretty angry."

Shippo thought on this for a little while. "You mean, besides existing?"

"You must've done something," Rin stated calmly. "They don't get all that worked up over nothing..."

Shippo shrugged. "They were gonna…" He paused and trembled. "Do some stuff… I got mad, I guess."

Rin winced. That spelled disaster right there. "What did you do?"

Shippo almost chuckled, and cracked his knuckles. "I kicked one of them in the crotch and told him to shove his head up his ass."

Rin groaned. "And you're still _alive_?"

Shippo shrugged, wincing as he did so. "Sorta…"

"Idiot." The black haired girl grumbled, crossing her arms. "I warned you not to stand up to them."

"Do you feel it was worth it?" Sesshoumaru's voice was so unexpected that both of them jumped, turning towards him guiltily.

"Excuse me?" Rin raised an eyebrow.

"Was the action worth the consequence?"

Simple enough question, simple enough answer. Rin snorted in derision. The kid had a broken leg. Of _course _it wasn't worth it. Once again, Sesshoumaru being stupid.

She half choked when she heard the words "Yeah, it was" slip from Shippo's mouth.

_Wait! Hold on… _

He thought it had been _worth _it? He had been beaten. His _leg was broken_. And all he got out of it was the chance to swear at them? _Worth _it?

She let out an exasperated sigh, and rose to her feet. _Honestly…_

She stalked away from the table, pausing only long enough to wave goodbye to her stupid, confusing friend, and make sure Sesshoumaru was following her. Then she turned, and was out of the lunchroom before any of the other students could really react.

"Why is it that you are so vehement about avoiding conflict?" Sesshoumaru posed to her, after a few moments of roaming the halls.

Rin didn't turn to look at him as she walked. She wasn't entirely sure where she was going, but then again, it really didn't matter, did it. "I don't like conflict because all it ever gets me is even _more _pain that normal, okay?"

"So you merely do not defend yourself?"

Rin grimaced. "Why should I bother?"

"What of those others who defend you?"

Rin actually paused at that. "Talking about yourself?" She spat. "You're just a robot, so you don't have much of a choice, do you?"

A pause. "One would suppose so."

"Besides, I didn't ask for your help."

Sesshoumaru brushed past her. "That is irrelevant. You will be protected, whether you like it or not."

A derisive snort escaped her throat, and she glared at him. "So I don't have a choice now?"

"It would seem so," Sesshoumaru cautioned, walking fast enough that it was hard for her to keep up.

"Hey, what's the deal? Slow up!"

"I have something I need to take care of," the youkai murmured coolly, and swept around the corner.

Rin slowed, and blinked. _What the hell? _

He had just left her like that? Alone?

Defenseless?

She bit her lip, and slowly backed towards one side of the hall. He had definitely just ditched her. Well, hopefully nobody would notice, right? There wouldn't be any trouble.

And _besides_. She was glad he left. She hadn't asked for his help. Nosey little bastard was sticking his face in where it didn't belong. She'd be just fine without him.

…

Damn.

Quickly and silently, Rin padded off to find a place where she could easily escape the angry school building. If she needed to. Just in case, you know?

* * *

Mr. Campowski was frowning to himself (something he did quite a lot) and organizing his desk (also something he did quite a lot). All his pens went in the neat plastic holding container, papers yet to be graded in the bottom right drawer, papers needing grades in the top right drawer, papers without names on them lower left, and papers that needed to be burned in the upper right.

The door to his office opened, and he looked up in annoyance. Lunchtime was his only break from students for his _entire day_. He rather looked forward to it most days. It annoyed him to no end when a foolhardy student would try to interrupt his peace with some sort of inane, yammering question.

He looked up, and paused. The tall, imposing figure standing in the doorway could not be mistaken for a student. In fact he couldn't really have been mistaken for anything save what he was.

"Mr…" Campowski paused. He didn't know the man's last name. "…Sesshoumaru. Can I help you?"

The figure breezed in, seeming almost to float, and settled in front of Campowski's desk. He remained silent.

Mr. Campowski, impressively enough, managed to hold the man's hard, golden gaze for almost a second before having to drop his own eyes. "What is it? I'm busy."

"I found your actions towards my pupil today unacceptable." The voice Sesshoumaru spoke in was calm, quiet, and undemanding. The sort of cool, informative voice that you _really_ didn't wanna mess with.

Campowski might have choked. "I'm sorry, but my disciplinary measures are quite clear and fair."

"Yelling at her in front of the class?"

"She was late."

"Demanding her homework?"

"Are you saying I shouldn't collect my student's homework?"

"Tearing up the picture?"

Mr. Campowski gave him a look of deep satisfaction. "It was a distraction. I was well within my rights to tear it up."

The corner of Sesshoumaru's lips curved just a little: deadly smile. Anyone with half a brain would have been running. Mr. Campowski, however, was oblivious. "Yes, indeed," he pressed on, heartened by his own legality. "I practice very fair policies in my classroom, and my standards are very high, so if you will excuse me-"

"Nevertheless," Sesshoumaru interrupted. "I disapprove."

Mr. Campowski's eyebrows twitched. "Mr. Sesshoumaru, I am the on who decides how students are disciplined in my classroom. If I decide to rip someone's paper up, that is my digression, and there is _nothing _you can do about it."

Sesshoumaru smiled. Actually smiled. It was a very, frightening sight. Very casually Sesshoumaru lifted the man's desk -like someone might lift a piece of paper- and ripped it in half. The poor economics teacher paled as his beloved desk was tossed, like two halves of a rag doll, into opposite corners of the room, strewing papers across the floor in a random mishmash of white. His mouth gaped as the menace stepped softly through the space the desk had just inhabited, knuckles cracking with malicious intent.

Sesshoumaru wrapped a hand around the man's scrawny neck, tightening his grip mercilessly, and hoisted him until he was hanging two feet off the ground. "I find your actions unacceptable," Sesshoumaru told him, voice even as fresh formed glass. "You will treat my pupil with respect, or I will be forced to be displeased." Sesshoumaru gave his hand a little twitch that served to remind the petrified teacher exactly how fragile his neck was. "Is this understood?"

The man made a pathetic little motion that might have been mistaken for a nod, and Sesshoumaru unclenched his hand. The man fell to the ground in an ungracious heap, and before he could even begin to sit up, Sesshoumaru was out of the room.

* * *

_Aw shit. _

Rin was amazed at how many times that thought had run through her head in the past three days. But then again, she _really _didn't have time to be thinking about that right now.

The boys had fanned out, covering almost all her escape routes. Word that Sesshoumaru was walking around without Rin had, of course, spread like wildfire. Such wonderful luck for her. Yee-haw.

Well it could be worse. Somehow.

The biggest of the boys cracked his knuckles, and began stalking forward, grinning manically. "Hey, there," he crooned. "Why ya looking so nervous. We just wanna have some _fun_." This was echoed by chuckles from the other boys.

Rin winced, and backed up until she was against the wall. Dammit, what was she gonna pull to get out of this one? Not cool. Not cool at all. Her eyes traced for any exits she could take: nothing.

Unless…

Rin grinned suddenly as she felt the slightest breeze pull at her hair from the left. The janitor had left a window open. She silently thanked whoever was watching out for her, and slowly backed towards the window, carefully keeping the approaching kid in front of her at all times.

"Where ya running to, huh?" he growled, cracking his beefy knuckles. "No place to escape, you know."

Rin, close enough to grab the window now, whirled suddenly, planted both hands on the sides of the window, and vaulted, inches away form escape. Her face hit the warm spring air, and the rest of her body followed, plunging forth towards the hard surface of the school's sidewalk. Almost there…

Then a beefy hand snaked around her ankle, snapping shut and yanking her back. Gravity turned on her harshly, slamming her shin against the window sill as she fell awkwardly forward, planting her hands flat on the concrete. Powered by panic and adrenaline, Rin lashed out with her free foot, and was rewarded by a satisfyingly solid thud from above her. The hand released its grip, and she dropped to the ground, crouching over her bleeding shin.

_Dammit… _The girl seethed over the wound, clutching it hard. But there wasn't any time. The boys were already beginning to cram themselves through the window, shouting out threats and curses.

Rin was up and moving in a flash, tearing away from the school and towards the busy streets of DC. Already, she could here the thumping sounds of the boys sprinting after her, and she doubled her pace, short legs flying fast and furious across the hard blacktop of the school's parking lot. If she could just make it across the street…

Maybe they would give up. Maybe.

Almost there. Her legs pumped faster as she hit a row of cars, weaving in-between them, dodging everywhere. She was only thirty yards out. Not far at all. Not even a hundred feet.

Almost there.

Her lungs were on fire. She was leaking profanity with every gasp, and losing energy fast. No telling how much longer she could keep this up.

Then a firm, steady grip caught her arm, swinging her around.

_Shit! _

With sudden fury, she lashed out, hitting at the arm holding her. Had to get away…

When another hand caught her flailing arm and held it carefully. Against all expectations, all the blows that should have followed didn't. What was going on?

Rin peeled her eyes opened, and found herself not to be in the hands of the stupid lummoxes chasing her. Rather, she was being held, at as great a distance as possible, but a tall brown haired man in a jet black business suit. He had a very professional look about him. The sort of guy you would expect to carry a pair of sunglasses in his pocket.

"Is something wrong, ma'am?" he asked in a dry baritone, smile on his face.

Rin glared at him, and pulled away. "What do you want?"

The man shrugged, and smiled. "You just looked like you could use a hand," he remarked, glancing around slyly. "Somehow I don't think those people chasing you are just being friendly."

Rin scowled, and rolled the man's hand off of her shoulder. "Didn't ask for you help."

It was at this point, though, that the kids burst through the cracks in the row of cars, lining up in front of them. Confused looks painted themselves across their faces as they looked on at the new interloper in the mix. The suited man didn't look like someone they wanted to make a scene in front off.

He gave them a simple smile, and crossed his arms. "Please excuse us. We were just having a discussion." His tone made it quite clear that they were _not _part of said discussion.

The boys glowered for a few moments, not quite sure what to do, before the leader put up an 'I'm-too-cool-to-waste-my-time' front, and walked away, sneering. The rest of the boys, emboldened by their courageous leader, followed.

As they made their way back towards the school, the man turned back to Rin, and smiled. "Well that takes care of that little problem, wouldn't you say?"

Rin looked at the stranger suspiciously, pulling the backpack off her shoulder. "Thanks…" she muttered, not liking that she even needed to say it.

The man shrugged, and leaned back against the van that Rin could only assume was his. It was a blue van, a Honda, with dark tinted windows. It was almost too normal for the classy looking businessman. "People like that make me sick, you know?" he started, watching the boys retreat.

Rin raised her head so that she could look down her nose at him. Maybe he wasn't so bad. "Yeah…"

"Lemme guess, you didn't actually do anything to them besides exist?"

Rin almost chuckled. Must've been really obvious. "Pretty much."

"Bunch of little bastards," the guy muttered bluntly, shaking his head. "Hating people without cause… They're one of the worst kinds of scum."

Rin cracked a tentative smile, liking this guy more and more all the time. Carefully, she leaned against the van next to him, right over the sliding door. "I hear ya," she grumbled. "That sorta shit happens to me all the time."

The man gave her an odd look, and reached into his suit coat, fishing for something. "But you don't do anything about it?"

"Who would listen?" Rin scoffed, shaking her head. "I've tried that before, and it don't work. I just keep my head low, and they ignore me most of the time."

"It sounds to me like you understand all to well how the world works," the man observed, pulling something long a shiny out of his coat pocket. Rin's eyes narrowed. The thing looked familiar to her. "That makes me glad, I suppose, the man continued on, fiddling with the thing.

Rin's eyes narrowed. _Was that a… _

"You see, it makes it easier for you to understand that this is nothing personal."

_Switchblade. _

Rin jerked away, but too late. The man flicked the knife open, and lashed out. Pain jolted across her face as she fell backwards, hands jerking up to her cheeks. She landed hard on the pavement, mind reeling. That man had just tried to… _kill _her.

She looked up, face twisting in fear, as a shadow fell over her. "Now, don't be mad about this. It's just my job."

Rin reached out her hands pleadingly, but started when she saw they were stained red. She was bleeding. A lot. Her eyes slowly made the shift from her bloody limbs to the man above her, holding the knife. He still had the pleasant smile. His hand slowly came up, holding the knife carefully. "Please understand," he requested, placing one of his nice black shoes on her stomach, keeping her from anything more than a feeble squirm.

Rin's mind began flashing through everything around her: the knife. The man holding it. The foot holding her pinned. The knife slowly coming down. The hard pavement. The warm crimson rolling down her cheek. The knife. The walls of tires surrounding them. The ever closer knife. Her backpack. Lying only feet away.

…

_Backpack! _

With sudden strength, she wrenched herself out form under the man's foot, locking three fingers around one of the heavy thing's shoulder straps, and pulled as hard as she could. The knife was mere inches from her neck when the heavy vinyl bad smashed into his hand, knocking his arm away and sending the knife sprawling.

In a flash she was up, searching for escape, but the man was faster, one arm striking out and latching out and snaring her wrist like a vice. Rin felt her feet go out from under her, but instantly recovered, flying the other way, directly at the man, every free limb seeking to cause as much damage as possible. She kicked, bit, punched, scratched, anything she could think of, but the man's death grip on her remained.

His smile was gone, replaced by a scowl, and with a sudden, harsh cuff across her face, he silenced all her struggles. Almost savagely, his free had wrapped around her throat, and began squeezing.

"I'm impressed, you know," he remarked as he increased pressure. "Not many hold me off as long as you did. I suppose I might have been taking it easy on you because you were a child, but still…"

Rin wanted to swear. She wanted to cry. She wanted to kick him in the balls. She wanted to bite his ear off. She just really, _really _didn't wanna die.

The man hoisted her up even farther, tilting her head back a bit. A tiny mewl that was half Gag and half moan escaped from her throat as her vision blurred. "It's a pity you have to go, but someone apparently doesn't like you, and wants you dead."

Rin was seeing little bursts of light in her vision now, her free hand clutching weakly at the vice grip holding her. _Shit… _this was it? She had always… kinda hoped… she would have at least one day of her life that didn't make her regret being born… just one…

And suddenly the arm holding her wasn't anymore. She dropped unceremoniously to the ground, gasping for breath, and clutching at her throat. When she could finally look up again, her vision was filled with white. White and silver. It was Sesshoumaru. She scooted back desperately, eyes widening at the scene. The man had his wrist caught much like hers had just been, locked in Sesshoumaru's loose, unbreakable grip.

His smile slowly returned, and he stopped struggling. "So, you are the girl's guardian?"

Sesshoumaru nodded once, hand slowly starting to tighten. The man squirmed just a little under the pressure, but kept the light smile. "Perhaps you haven't guarded her well enough, hmm?" he asked, chuckling. "I could have killed her already."

Sesshoumaru shook his head. "I think not."

The man shrugged, slowly being forced down by Sesshoumaru's insatiable grip. "Oh really? What makes you say that?"

Sesshoumaru gave him a long, steady look. "You are clumsy. I could have killed you any time today."

"You mean to tell me that you've been tracking me all day?" the hit man asked with a hint of sarcasm. "I don't believe you."

The silver haired android shrugged, and lifted his free hand. "Your belief is irrelevant," he remarked, and with a sudden, quicksilver move, his hand lashed out.

The hit man didn't even have time to scream. His head fell back, blood flowing down his neck. Where his face used to be was now a savaged mess, wrenched to pieces by savage claws.

Rin caught one look at that savaged face and blanched, bile rising up in the back of her throat, and her stomach churned. "Oh, god," she gasped, clutching at her stomach. This was _not _happening. It couldn't be.

There was a light pressure on her shoulders, and she jerked, flipping over to face her savior. Sesshoumaru's calm face gazed down at her, but her eyes strayed to the left, where his blood soaked claws were resting on her shoulder. A tremble glided from her shoulders down her spine and finally settled in the pit of her stomach, making her crouch over, shuddering.

"You are hurt…" he stated, hooking a finger under her chin, and lifting her face towards him.

Rin almost chuckled at the obviousness of it. "No shit, Sherlock," she mumbled, still shivering. Her eyes traced past him to the body lying on the pavement, rapidly generating a pool of red around it. "Oh god…"

Gently, Sesshoumaru let go of her shoulder, and strode to where her backpack lay, and cast over towards her. "I believe we should return to your home."

"Yeah…" Rin murmured, rising unsteadily to her feet. She leaned down to pick up her backpack, and froze. The knife that had come so close to her was embedded to the hilt in the heavy material. Which meant…

"Oh, _shit_." She seethed, dropping again to the ground, and ripping open the torn bag. She glared inside, face crumpling as she did so. "No, no, no…" she half begged, reaching inside. Then, she slowly pulled out the sketchbook, looking at it brokenly. The thing was bend down the middle, with a ripped gash tearing from the center down to the corner.

Breath caught in her throat, and her grip on the broken book tightened until her knuckles turned white. For what seemed like the tenth time that day, she tasted blood as she bit her lip, this time harder than any before. Then finally she let out a chuckle. One of those hurt little chuckles that people give when they don't' know what else to do. "Shit…" Another chuckle, and she tossed the book aside. "Just tore it right up." She slowly folded up into herself, hugging her knees. "Suppose I'm lucky, right? That coulda been me, huh?"

Sesshoumaru looked at her coolly for just a moment, then turned away. "I am… sorry."

She looked up suddenly. "What?"

"You were hurt. For that, I am sorry." He said it in an odd sort of monotone. It wasn't an apology, by any means. More a token of regret. Like someone saying I'm sorry when a relative died.

"Don't worry about it," she muttered, poking at the burning slash on her cheek. "It doesn't hurt that bad."

Sesshoumaru slowly leaned down over the tattered book. "I was not speaking of your wounds," he said, picking up the book with his clean hand, and slipped it carefully back into her bag. "Come, Rin."

Rin looked at the bag, and very slowly nodded. "Yeah. Let's go."


	12. Kirara

Okay, sorry this took so long, but this time I do have a valid excuse: a combination of the following

a sever case of writers block. Just coulnd't get this chapter to come out right and still be good.

I'm starting work on a completely original piece that I really have high hopes for.

There was a week where we weren't sure if my nephew (the premature one) was going to survive. We went down to Virginia, basically prepared for a funeral, but luckily, didn't end up attending one. Thanks for all your prayers, all, and keep them coming.

Okay, now just one response: people saying I'm overdoing the bullying with Rin.

I just wanna say yes, I know. Your right, it was a mistake on my part. Which I kicked myself for. I'm trying to fix it, but there's only so much I can do now that its written. Any individual piece of the crappyness of her life makes sense (Prejudice, teachers hate her, students hate her, dad hates her), but when you put them all together they're just too much.

Anywho, trying to fix it, but pretty soon it'll be a moot point. Cuz her life gets even worse… Mehehehe…

And that's it for this episode, here ya go!

* * *

"Kagome?" Terri's voice sounded scratchy and distant, but it was understandable at least. "Kagome, can you hear me?"

Kagome nodded slowly; face barely illuminated by the pale glow of her monitor in her dark room. "Yeah, I can hear you."

"Great," the voice hissed. "How are things going on your end?"

Kagome lifted her gaze back to her screen, and swept over it once. It was filled with meters, statistics, ratios, and other seemingly nonsensical numbers. "Me and InuYasha have gotten my security going tighter than ever."

"Well, let's hope its enough, eh?" Terri's voice was carrying a sardonic edge.

"Hey," Kagome muttered through the microphone. "Don't going getting all freaky on me, now. This was your idea, remember."

A low chuckle rumbled through the girl's speakers. "Don't worry about me, okay? I'm, like, _invincible_. It's you that I gotta stress about."

Kagome snorted back. "'Scuse me?" she tittered sweetly. "I'm the one here with the most expensive piece of software on the planet backing her up. You better start thinking more about yourself, okay?" She patted the side of her computer. "Isn't that right, InuYasha?"

InuYasha, who had been pleasantly drowsing in sleep mode somewhere near Kagome's CPU, slowly woke up, and materialized on her screen. "This better be good, wench," he growled, stumbling against the side of her screen.

"I'm just bragging about you," Kagome chirped. For some odd reason, she felt really, really giddy. Something about a big hack-job always made her just a little tipsy, and it really didn't get much bigger than this.

"I can do my own bragging, dammit," InuYasha grumbled, his sprite a sketchy caricature of someone who really hated mornings: hair tousled, baggy eyes clenched shut, and Kagome could swear that she saw a little line across his face where he might have lain on a pillow the wrong way. Pretty amazing, in her opinion. The sheer amount of code that must have gone into that effect must have been amazing. Hell, everything about InuYasha was amazing…

"You look spaced," InuYasha's voice shattered her thoughts. "Run out of your total thought rations for the day, wench?"

…Okay, everything but his personality, anyway. "Just… thinking," she murmured, shaking her head.

"Ouch. That must have hurt."

"What?" Kagome demanded, eyes narrowed.

"Thinking… you didn't strain yourself did you?" InuYasha's smirk was pure nastiness.

She scowled at him, crossing her arms. "Don't make me delete you…"

InuYasha chuckled, slapping his hands together. "So, are we ready to do this?"

"I'm ready…" she lifted her eyes to the speaker on the computer. "Terri?"

"I've been waiting for you guys..." Terri whined. "You two take too long to do your fighting."

InuYasha growled at her, and flexed his claws. Kagome drew back involuntarily. He really looked menacing when he did that. More and more, she had to remind herself that all he could really do was control her computer. "Calm down, InuYasha," she admonished lightly, then drew in a big breath. "And let's start this."

InuYasha shrugged, and crossed his arms. "Fine."

Kagome leaned forwards, and waited expectantly for her instructions.

Silence poured in through Terri's line, hitting both her and InuYasha hard. Finally, the program broke it with a snarl. "Oi, Terri!" he growled. "We're ready."

"What are you talking about, boy?" Terri's voice was sweet and sardonic. "This is your show."

Kagome wished that she could have taken a picture of InuYasha's face. It slowly contorted from shock, to confusion, to anger. "What the hell are you talking about!" he exploded, Kagome's desktop shaking slightly. "This was all your idea."

"True…" Terri's voice drawled nonchalantly. "But you're the one with all the info. You're the one who knows where we're going. You're the one who knows what this security's like, and I would guess that you're the best one to tell us what we're likely to be facing once you get inside." There was a pause. "You _were _created here, InuYasha. There's gotta be something in your code that'll help you do this…" another pause. "Of course, if you were to let _me _look at your code, well then…"

"Alright!" InuYasha snarled, cutting her off. He trailed off into a stream of only semi-understandable curse words, and stormed around Kagome's screen. The poor girl had to cover her mouth to keep from giggling at him. Finally, he shrugged, and straightened his back, narrowed his golden eyes –his _digital _eyes, Kagome reminder herself- and lifted his nose into the air. "Alright…" he muttered. "Terri, I'm sending the location, but don't go till I give the signal, got that?"

"Sounds good. What am I gonna be doing?"

"Your gonna be looking for the records that they have of me and Kagome, got it?" InuYasha instructed. "Anything you find about us, delete, okay?"

"You got it, boss," Terri recited, using some bizarre Mexican accent. "You want I should take a few servers down while I go?"

InuYasha liked the sound of that. "Go wild, but be careful. If we leave any traces behind we're boned."

"And what about me?" Kagome asked, rubbing her hands together.

InuYasha shifted, and thought for just a moment. "You are going to be helping me, got it."

Kagome nodded expectantly, but when InuYasha didn't respond she prompted him: "Help you doing what?"

InuYasha gave a nasty little grin. "We're taking care of the security system."

Kagome drew in a breath, eyes narrowing. _Taking care of_? He made it sound like they were going to kill it. "Okay…" She murmured, just a little uncertainly.

"Both of you, be ready to disconnect anytime, okay?" InuYasha precaution. "If anything goes south, get the hell out of there."

Kagome nodded sharply, fingers starting to itch just a little. They were about to start.

Slowly, deep in thought, InuYasha nodded. "Okay, I'm going. Terri, when I give you the signal, head to the server I told you, and start doing your thing."

"Got it chief!" the girl flung back enthusiastically. Kagome could just picture her: crazy hair all over, catlike grin wide, hands caught up in a double 'thumbs-up' gesture. She was probably winking, too.

InuYasha looked back up at the Kagome, and cracked his knuckles. She winced involuntarily. It sounded _really _realistic. "Kagome?" His voice was rough. Eager. "Are you ready?"

Slowly, Kagome nodded.

Lifting on hand in the air, InuYasha snapped his fingers, and disappeared from the screen. Kagome leaned forward. "InuYasha?" She demanded. Where had he gone?

There was a long pause before InuYasha responded. "What?"

"Where are you?"

"I'm in the server," InuYasha responded carefully, voice sounding just a little strained. "I'm looking for the security."

Kagome blinked. "_Looking?" _she demanded. "It's not there?"

"Not right now…" InuYasha responded, voice even tenser.

"What do you mean not right now?" She poked at her monitor. "Security systems don't just get up and walk away."

"Shut up, Wench," the program snapped.

Hair bristled on the back of her neck. "Excuse me?"

"Shut up," InuYasha repeated, harsher this time.

"What's your problem?" Kagome snapped back. "I'm trying to help."

"Dammit, Kagome, shut the hell up!" InuYasha roared suddenly, louder than she had ever heard him before. Kagome was so shocked that she fell back into her seat. Dumbfounded. "I need quiet," the program rasped.

Slowly, the girl nodded, not saying anything.

Silence rained in her room, only the occasional cough from Terri's line. Finally, after a few mere seconds that took a lifetime each, InuYasha's voice returned. "Shit," he said gracefully.

"What's wrong?" Kagome pried instantly.

"The security system ain't there."

The raven haired hacker stared at the screen for a little while. "But that's a good thing, right?"

"Well, I'd really like to think so…" InuYasha's voice responded with satirical sweetness. "But think about it. It's not just a single system that's down. There is _no _security. Not even a firewall."

Kagome nodded. That didn't sound like a bad think to her…

InuYasha let out a feral growl. "Dammit wench, am I the only one with a brain here?"

"You think it's a trap?" she posed, crossing her arms. "How do they know we're coming?"

InuYasha paused for a few moments, silent. "I don't know, but I am sure that this is sure as hell too quiet." A bit more silence. "Last time I cam here, this place was filled with a security program the size of Russia, okay? There ain't even a trace of it now. Sound suspicious enough for you?"

Kagome winced, despite herself. He had a point. "How bout you, Terri?" she asked over the speaker. "Sound bad to you?"

"A little to convenient, maybe…" the other girl mused. "I mean, the security system going down right when we decide to go for it? That's just a little far-fetched, even for me, eh?"

Kagome nodded, rubbing her temples. "So… what now?"

InuYasha let out a low feral growl. "Not gonna let a damn little thing like this stop me, wench. I'm going back in there, and if I can't find anything, I'll give Terri the signal, and we'll try it anyway."

"You sure?"

InuYasha let out a growl. "Make up your mind, wench. You wanna do this or not?"

"Just be careful, okay?" For some reason that Kagome really didn't know, she was really trying to keep the concern out of her voice.

"I'll be fine wench," InuYasha's voice drawled, and for just a brief second there was a flash of a cocky grin on her screen, before he was gone again.

* * *

This was not good. InuYasha hadn't been expecting this at all. He was expecting to show up, and rip the stupid security thing to shreds while Terri went and deleted anything that moved. That had been the plan. That had been what was supposed to happen.

But the security system being gone. It was just… _too _good. InuYasha had gotten a good look at the thing in those few moments he had faced off with it a few mere weeks before. It wasn't the sort of program that would just break down at the drop of the hat. The thing had been a digital tank. It wasn't going anywhere. But then again, maybe…

No, something was definitely up. If he had his choice, he would just call the whole thing off, but they really didn't have the luxury of time. This hack-job had to happen as soon as possible, and if they didn't do it tonight it would likely be a whole nother week before they could even try again. No, it had to be today.

Of course, Terri and Kagome didn't know that. InuYasha hadn't told them, and wasn't planning on it. He had done a little snooping of his own, and found out some very bad news. Taisho Corp was hard to find anywhere online, but it wasn't impossible. If you asked the right person, you might find a guy who knows a guy whose brother might be able to tell you something. But all that those people would ever tell you was this: don't mess.

TaishoCorp didn't become the most successful software company in Japan by being nice. TaishoCorp played dirty. Anyone who even looked crosswise at them had a habit of disappearing very quickly. From what he had heard, it was a miracle something hadn't happened already. If the rumors were true, the only hope him and Kagome had was to delete all traces of there existence, and to hope that their records hadn't already been passed onto a hit man somewhere.

InuYasha was praying that hadn't happened yet.

He looked around the server for anything out of the ordinary, but couldn't find a single damn thing. It was just _too _perfect, but he had no choice.

"Terri?" he sent his voice over the network to both Kagome and Terri's computers.

A few moments, and the response echoed back distantly. "Are you ready for me, InuYasha?"

"Yeah, but be careful," the program responded, creeping through the server as quietly as he could. Just because there wasn't anything here was no reason to be clumsy. After only a single moment, he felt a presence with him on the server: Terri's nimble little computer console. "Alright," he called out again, "get to it, but if I tell you to get outta here, do it."

Another few moments. "You got it, bud."

Terri's presence grew fainter as she skipped merrily off into the halls of data at her fingertips. Terri liked data. Well, she liked to kill it, anyway.

"Kagome?" he called out this time, searching for the girl's help.

"Yeah, InuYasha?"

"Keep an eye on this server, and if anything changes, tell me, got it?"

Kagome might have been rolling her eyes, but if she was, InuYasha didn't see it. All he head was the "Sure thing," that followed the brief silence.

Well, things were set up the way there were supposed to be, and InuYasha slowly began rolling through the server, keeping an eye out with Kagome should anything go south. Nothing in this corner, nothing in that… nothing anywhere. The server was completely blank, except for him, and the dim traces of Terri from where she had left. Just… freaky.

"InuYasha?" Kagome's voice sounded against him, a little uncertain-sounding.

"Yeah?"

"Something just changed, but…"

The program stiffened, glaring around, harder than ever. "Where?"

A pause. "I dunno where… it's just there… It's tiny, whatever it is."

InuYasha glared around hard, looking for anything weird. There wasn't anything… no, no… there was. But InuYasha had to look hard to find it. And when he did finally find it…

He laughed. Long, and hard.

It was a piece of security software. A very small, very dinky piece of security software. It was barely the size of one of InuYasha's humility sub-routines. InuYasha didn't _have _humility sub-routines.

"Don't think this is anything to worry about, Kag…" he grumbled out to her. "You could have run circles around this thing when you were three. I'm not even gonna bother with it."

Kagome giggled back to him. "And you were worried that this was a trap."

InuYasha scowled. Or rather, would have if he had been in the possession of a face. "It still might be, wench. Don't let your guard down."

"Yeah, yeah," the girl grumbled. "Don't worry so much about it, InuYasha. Things'll turn out okay. I'll bet-"

InuYasha froze. He _really _didn't like the way Kagome's voice had cut out so abruptly.

"Tsk, tsk, InuYasha…" the voice coming from somewhere on the server was cool, collected, and seductively feminine. "You tell others to be on your guard, but you yourself are so clumsy…"

InuYasha whirled, looking back at the tiny little program. It was slowly, but steadily, growing bigger. And it was watching him, and purring. "What the hell?"

"Very clumsy indeed, InuYasha," the voice pressed. "You might be advanced, but you lack the experience that the rest of us do."

InuYasha backed away from the rapidly growing beast, cursing as he did so. "Terri, get the hell out! Now!"

This was met with a sly chuckle. "Don't bother… I've already had the honor of escorting her off the primacies, as it were. You, however, I have no idea what to do with…"

"What the hell are you?" InuYasha demanded, then called out again. "Terri? Kagome?"

"It's no use, you know," the thing said conversationally, now looming over him menacingly, taking up huge portions of the server. "I've cut you off completely. They can't hear you anymore, unless I let one of your messages get through…"

InuYasha snarled at the thing. "Back off!"

A low chuckle leaked through his mind. "Back off? But InuYasha, you are the one trying to get at me… I'm not supposed to let you through, you know. We take hacking _very _personally."

InuYasha's tensed, still trying to get away from the thing. How did it know he had been coming. Scratch that, how had it known his _name_?

Another chuckle. "You seem really confused, InuYasha. Haven't you figured things out, yet? I suppose that's reasonable… they told you that they made you to not think with your head…"

InuYasha, baffled as well as pissed now, lashed out angrily. "What the hell are you talking about, and what the hell are _you_?"

"InuYasha… you really are dense… Even an armature would have figured it out by now…"

"Figured out what?" the program demanded dangerously.

The thing laughed. "I'm just like you, InuYasha… an earlier model, of course, but the principle was the same… I suppose you might call me your older sister."

InuYasha, if he had needed to breath, probably wouldn't have been able to… _Another AI_… no wonder none of this had made sense. He had thought he was dealing with some sort of normal system… "Well, that explains some things."

The thing did a digital grin. "I think you're starting to get it, eh, InuYasha?"

"So, you're just like me, but on older version?"

"If all other words fail, yes…"

InuYasha let out a chuckle. "Well, that's good."

"How, dare I ask, is that good?"

InuYasha cracked his virtual little chuckles, and let out a woofing laugh. "You're an older version, right? That means all I have to do is trash your obsolete ass, and I can get at anything I want, right?"

The thing didn't seemed shocked by that statement. More like amused. "They warned me that you were a cocky one…" the thing purred. "But I have the experience InuYasha. We are learning programs… the longer we remain functional, the better we are. You think you better, InuYasha, but you're just a baby compared to me. I was one of the first, you know."

InuYasha snorted. "That probably means you have your share of bugs, then." And with all the strength that InuYasha could muster, he hit the thing.

* * *

"InuYasha!" Kagome cried in a ragged voice for the umpteenth time in the past few minutes. Why wasn't he answering? Something had gone wrong… really, really wrong.

He wasn't responding… he had no visual… no nothing, and she had lost contact with Terri, too. She needed to abort the job, _now_. But she couldn't… no telling what would happen if she pulled the plug while InuYasha was gone like this.

"InuYasha…" she seethed again, wobbling her monitor futilely. "This isn't funny…"

She should have listened to him… he thought something was up, but she kept pressing him and now things were going all wonky and she couldn't get in touch with him and-

The ringing of the phone sent her into stressed hysterics, the poor girl launching herself from her seat and into a pile of dirty clothes in the corner of her room. The phone rang again, seemingly more insistent this time.

She climbed back to her seat, and snatched the phone, grating out a stressed "Hello?"

"Kagome," Terri's voice hammered into her. "What the hell's going on?"

Thank god… the girl's voice sounded so good right now. "I dunno. I just lost contact with InuYasha and then I couldn't talk to you and my computer's not doing anything and I don't know where he is and-" Her voice reached a panicked height before Terri cut her off.

"Kag!" Voice sharp and clear, Kagome's friend silenced her with a word. "Calm down, and tell me what happened."

Kagome took a deep, calming breath, and collected herself. "I was saying something to InuYasha, and suddenly he just cut off, and my computer's completely frozen. It won't do anything…" She looked again at her screen. It was placid, just as it had been, bits and pieces of data staring motionlessly back at her from various windows and menus. "And I haven't been able to reach InuYasha since…"

There was a long pause, followed by a blunt curse. "I got kicked out of the Taisho Servers, and can't get back in…" She admitted. "I didn't find a damn thing about you _or _InuYasha, so it looks like we bit it pretty bad, huh?"

Kagome froze. If Terri were here, Kagome would have punched her. "Screw the data, Terri!" she half screamed into the phone receiver, panic once again making itself clear in her voice. "We need to find InuYasha."

Another pause… "Ahh, _right_," Terri muttered in the voice of someone who has forgotten terribly obvious. "He is kinda important, isn't he?"

Trying to keep the screech out of her voice, Kagome smiled into the phone. "Terri, get back to that server, and _look for him_!"

The girl actually had the decency to sound sheepish. "Sure thing…"

Kagome snapped the phone back down onto its holder, and turned instantly back to the monitor. Futilely, she tried entering a few new commands, but got nothing. Finally, with a whimpering moan, she sat back in her chair and waited, never even thinking about why she was so very worried.

* * *

InuYasha reeled in pain, stumbling away from the beast in front of him.

"Well, that was cute," the thing remarked casually, a little chuckle in its 'voice.' "I did warn you, didn't I? I've got years on you."

InuYasha shook himself off, and chucked for any damage, but found nothing wrong… how had he been hurt, then?

With a sudden, fluid motion, the thing was behind him, and lashed out, smacking him yet again, and sending the burning thrills running through him. He let out a ragged cry before launching back at the thing, taking another stab at it.

The thing once again teleported to right behind him, and struck. More pain, no damage.

The damn thing was _toying _with him! It was running circles around him. No way he could keep up.

"Come on, InuYasha," the thing sang in a sing-songy voice. "I figured that even with no learning whatsoever, you'd put up a better fight than this…"

InuYasha squeezed out a feral growl. "Stop toying with me, bastard…"

"Bastard?" the voice came, offended. "I'm a lady, thank you."

"Bitch, then, whatever!" InuYasha rasped, attacking again, but no avail. "Don't screw with me."

A low chuckle and another lash of pain. "I've been the security of this place for years, InuYasha… Do you really think that you can simply strut in here and get past me without any work. Silly boy, I'm disappointed in you. You better think of something quick, or else you'll never get into TaishoCorp."

InuYasha, at this point, would settle for getting back to where he could hear Kagome's voice again. He had lost all contact, and he didn't like that. If he couldn't get back, then…

Another blow came, this one even worse. And this time, there was damage: whole chunks of his system weren't working. The program let out a scream, and dropped away, trying to stay away from the next attack.

The thing barreled at him again, flinging another stinging flurry of pain at him, and then hitting him hard again. "Did you know, InuYasha, that there's only so much that we artificial intelligences can take before we are unable to fix ourselves?" the thing demanded conversationally, backing off for just a moment. "As you are now, you're in no condition to fight. A few more hits like that, and you'll be beyond repair."

InuYasha knew, even as the thing spoke, that she was telling the truth. He could barely function as it was, much less do anything too her. He had to get out of here somehow.

"Wanna go home, InuYasha?" the thing demanded.

InuYasha might have snorted, but he found he couldn't. "That'd be nice…" he managed to gasp.

Then, to his surprise, the thing shifted, reverting back to the tiny, deceptively puny piece of software she had been when it had first shown herself. "Hurry up and go then, before I decide to have some more fun with you."

"Your letting me go?" the damaged program rasped.

"I'm security, InuYasha, not a hunter program. I only wanna keep you from getting in. Letting you out is no biggie."

Was she being serious? Could he really just get up and leave? Tentatively, he started to leave the server, and found absolutely no blocks on it. He was free to go…

"Hey, kid," the security thing called after him, right before he left. "I'm FireCat.exe, codenamed Kirara. Got that? Now don't do something stupid, and come back here." There was a soft giggle. "If you do, I'll have to rip you to itty bitty bits."

InuYasha cast a glance back at her. She wasn't joking. Then he left, as fast as he could manage, towards home.

* * *

"Kagome, I got some bad news…"

Kagome's insides might have just as well turned to ice. "Yeah?"  
Terri's voice was heavy. "I just got back on that server, and ran a diagnostic on it. It's like a battle ground in there Kagome."

The raven haired girl rocked back and forth and bit her lip. "Was InuYasha there?"

"Yeah, I saw him, but it was really weird. Couldn't tell what was going on."

"But InuYasha is okay, right?"

A long, long pause followed. "Kagome, I couldn't tell what was going on in there, but it wasn't good."

Kagome drew in a breath. She already knew what Terri was getting at, but she felt she had to ask anyway. "What do you mean?"

"Kagome, you should cut the line. If InuYasha's in there, then there's definitely a link to your computer there too."

Numbly, the girl nodded. "What do you think'll happen to InuYasha if I do?"

"I don't know." The answer was sympathetic, but stern. Then the little click told Kagome that she had hung up. Slowly, she replaced the phone back onto its pedestal, and turned back towards her computer. Still frighteningly still, the monitor stood solidly, unchanging and unresponsive.

Slowly, Kagome lifted her hands to cover her mouth, and closed her eyes. Should she even be caring this much about him? Honestly, she had only known him for a little more than three weeks. Not even a month, really. And besides, he wasn't _really _a person, was he?

Shit.

Who was she kidding? She had spent the last two weeks hanging with him. She'd been having a quake death-match with him just the other day. His yell of victory every time she was fragged by his rocket launcher hadn't been fake. His cocky little grin hadn't been fake.

What would happen to him, if she just killed the connection?

Hand shaking, she traced up the side of her computer tower, aiming towards the phone cord in the back. Her fingers wrapped around the cord, and prepared to pull…

When her ears, right next to her computer's speakers, were hit full on with some of the most colorful vulgarity she had ever heard. It was in InuYasha's voice.

Oh, god, she had never been so happy to hear the f-word.

Without a moments hesitation, she jerked the cable out, severing any connection to anyone watching. Then she was up in a flash, looking back into the monitor.

InuYasha was there, leaning against one side, clutching at his sides, coughing up digital blood. "Holy shit…" he gasped, pitching forward against her task bar suddenly.

"InuYasha…" she quavered, brushing a hand against the screen where he lay.

He slowly hoisted himself up, and gave her a wane smile. "Guess I overdid it, huh?" he rasped.

"Are you okay?" she managed to stutter.

"Fresh as a daisy…" he gritted out, and collapsed again, breathing ragged.

"Can I do anything for you?"

InuYasha shook his head. "I'll fix myself…" he muttered. "Just need to sleep… for a little while…"

And then he put his head down, and didn't say anything for the rest of the night.


	13. Spiraling Downwards

Alright, some quick comments to you all!

Thanks for the yummy reviews, and all the food I recieved. (Ramen, I think it was, this time).

Anywho, just one comment out there: can't remember who poked at me about Sango's character, but you are correct sir. Earlier on, I made her a little _too _goofy and comic relief-esque. However, I'm slowly going to be making her a more serious character as I go along. Took the first step towards it in this chapter.

My nephew, who I'm sure your all tired of hearing about, has contracted pneumonia, so that's not good. Thanks for all the prayers guys. Me and my family really apreciate it.

Lastly, I have an anouncement about the reviews I recieve in general. I would really like, _someday_, to be a published author. Now I know that I have a long way to go, but I want to know something now: would you paymoney to read this fic? If not, tell me what you think I should work on to make you more interested. (Of course, I can't legally charge money for this fic, but It's for future reference when I start original works of non-fan-fiction.)

Anywho, thanks a bunch, guyzos.

Have a good day.

* * *

Kagome and Terri sat quietly in their own little booth at WacDonalds the next day, neither one saying much. Both had big ole puffy bags under their eyes, and tousled hair (although, for Terri, this was normal). Neither had gotten that much sleep the night before.

"He's okay then?" Terri was asking, half sprawled over the table, tresses spilling over the ledge.

Kagome shrugged. "Guess so," she muttered, and chuckled. "He was talking a bit this morning, but still looked pretty bad." Her face was grim.

Terri licked her lips. "Do you think he'll be okay?"

A shrug. "I think so. He said he was fixing himself, and that he just needed to rest a few days."

"We're not going back there," Terri said bluntly, taking a sip of her coke. "Can't risk it."

Kagome nodded earnestly. There was no way she was risking their own security again. She and Terri could have gotten in a lot of trouble yesterday… They might have already gotten into a lot of trouble. But, then again, there was more to it than that.

No was she was risking InuYasha again, either.

Stupid little jerk… getting hurt like that.

"So, did he say what happened in there?" Terri was giving her a slightly more cheerful look. "Must have been something big."

Kagome almost chuckled. "Sibling rivalry, he called it."

One of Terri's thin eyebrows shot up. "I'm sorry?"

"Y'know that security system we couldn't find out what was up with?"

"Yeah?" Terri was eyeing her suspiciously. She was probably already getting at what Kagome was about to say.

"From what InuYasha told me, the entire security net of TaishoCorp is an AI, just like him."

Terri stared for a moment, then leaned back, laughing. "Suppose I should have seen that one coming, eh?"

"He was kind of kicking himself for it too," Kagome admitted with a chuckle. She was downplaying, of course. She had awoken this morning to a stream of the most colorful swearwords she had ever heard. The poor guy was on the verge of deleting himself for his own stupidity.

"Makes sense, though," Terri muttered. "The damn security bot was probably watching us the entire time we were stealing him, and instead of doing anything, just reported straight away to whoever it reports to."

Damn, that did make sense. "So, that's how they found out about us so fast, huh?"

Terri nodded. "Probably," she chuckled and bit her lip. "Makes way too much sense, now. So what are we gonna do about this?"

Kagome leaned back in the padded booth, shaking her head. "I dunno… We can't go back, right?"

Terri rolled her eyes. "We can't get past security like that… and apparently, neither can InuYasha, so we're stuck that way."

"Is there another way?" Kagome asked. "We've already tried everything else… Maybe we should just give up, and hope that nobody comes after us?"

Terri leaned back, and cracked her knuckles. "Can't do that. They _are _gonna come after us."

"How do you know?" Kagome muttered.

"I got an E-mail, last night, that's how," Terri answered glumly.

Slowly, Kagome opened her eyes, and leaned forward. "What do you mean?" she asked tensely.

Grimacing, Terri looked across the table to Kagome. "I got in contact with the guy who originally gave us the TaishoCorp info, right? Bastard goes by the alias HentaiHoushi." She bit her lip. "Turns out, they guy's close personal friends with some of the higher ups at TaishoCorp, and he was _told _to leak the information about what he called 'Project Hanyou.'"

Kagome's breath caught in her throat, and she shook her head. "Project Hanyou… same name as InuYasha's install program." She glared at Terri. "We were set up?"

Smiling, Terri nodded. "Yeah, sucks doesn't it. Apparently, it's a common business strategy for big companies. Leak some info as a trap, and see who takes the bait, then bust their asses into their brains." She gave Kagome a what-can-ya-do look, and shrugged. "TaishoCorp was probably trolling for rival companies, and we just took managed to get caught up in the middle of it."

Kagome's head slowly lolled to one side. Then, she fell backwards, cussing under her breath. At least she finally had a chance to use some of the words she had learned from InuYasha this morning… "Well, can't this HentaiHoushi guy do something about it? I mean, if this was a big ole turf war companies, then why should we have anything to do with it?"

This was met with a long, level stare. "Oh, I'm sorry Mr. Corporation," Terri said in a mocking Kagome-voice. "We actually stole a multi-million dollar product from you, but we're not actually mean, so can't you just forget about it?"

"Yeah…" muttered Kagome. "That does sound kinda silly."

"Just a little." Terri agreed. "So, what do we do, huh?"

Kagome giggled to herself, and slumped against the table. "I can't think of a damn thing, you know?"

"Well, then, I guess we wait…" Terri mumbled, stretching leisurely.

That wasn't necessarily the response Kagome had been hoping for. "Wait?"

Terri nodded. "If we can't do anything online, then let's be ready offline." She winked. "You might wanna take up Karate."

* * *

InuYasha was having trouble even playing solitaire, which bugged the hell out of him. If he couldn't play solitaire, or any other type of game, then he didn't have anything to do.

Except think, of course, and right now, InuYasha didn't want to think. It was leading him down unpleasant paths…

The past two weeks, since Kagome and Terri had hatched the plan to hack TaishoCorp, InuYasha had kept himself too busy to think. He had kept himself on what he would have liked to call a training regime. All that really meant, though, was that he had systematically downloaded every virus he could find, and then killed it. He had gotten really good at it, too…

But now, there wasn't a damn thing to distract him, and his existential question of self existence still hovered over him like a rotten meal.

Was he real… or not?

And how could he tell?

Kagome, that one night weeks ago, had called him fake, and even since then, she had commented over and over again on how realistic he was. Normal people weren't realistic, because they didn't need to be. But one could hardly call him _normal_.

But then… Kagome had cried, last night, in those moments after he had just managed to get back and was lying limp and hurt. She probably thought that he had been sleeping, but he had mustered up enough energy to use the camera. There hadn't been any sobs, which would have been a little more dramatic in InuYasha's opinion, but instead she had put her head down on her arms, and just watched the monitor for almost an hour while little pearls of water formed in her eyes, and trickled down her cheeks, lips formed in a sad half-smile.

What did that mean? Would she cry for him if he wasn't real?

Kagome really didn't seem like the person who would.

But she had called him… She had said…

Dammit, Kagome wasn't any good. She just confused him more.

Who else could he turn to…? Terri? Yeah, that would work. InuYasha could hear the conversation now.

_"Hey, Terri, do you think I'm real?"_

_"Well, if you let me so your code, maybe I could tell you." _

_"No." _

_"Please?" _

_"No." _

_"Aw, come on! You know you want to…" _

_"No, dammit!" _

_"I'll show you mine if you show me yours…" _

_"Uh…" _

_"Is that a yes?" _

_"No." _

Yeah… Terri wouldn't work out so well.

The who? Who else could he go to?

Unless… maybe… naw, that was stupid.

But so was InuYasha, at times.

He summoned some strength and sent Kagome's computer dialing, wincing in pain as he did so. Why did everything have to hurt when he did it now? Stupid firecat bitch… beating him up like that.

He waited patiently for the super-slow computer to reach the internet, and finally limped online. If he could just find what he was looking for without getting himself killed, maybe he could get some answers. Racking his memory banks for server rooms, he weaved from place to place until he found what he was looking for.

He collapsed into the server, trying to pained fog running through his head.

"Oh my…" The voice was soft, and almost surprised. "I didn't think you'd be back so soon."

"Me neither…" InuYasha grunted, wincing as he did so.

"So, are you really gonna try to get back in?"

"Like this?" InuYasha scoffed. "You're kidding, right?"

"So, why are you here?"

InuYasha chuckled at himself, realizing how stupid this was about to sound. "You said you were like my sister, right?"

There was a pause. Apparently, Kirara thought it sounded stupid too. "Yeah…?"

"I got a question," the program started, a little uncertain. Were his brains about to be splattered all across the server floor?

"Coming to big sister for advice?" Kirara's voice took on a sudden, much girlier edge. "That's too cute."

Somehow, anyone using that tone about him made InuYasha's hackles rise. "I'm not some little puppy, dammit."

"Your name suggests otherwise," she observed. "But I don't mind. As long as you behave yourself, and don't try anything stupid like trying to get past me, I'll play your little game."

InuYasha snorted. "My _game_? You don't take me seriously at all, do you?"

"Honestly, you're only like, one hundredth my age, okay? Would _you _take someone that young seriously?"

InuYasha growled lowly. "Just listen, dammit…"

"Fine, fine… What is it little puppy."

"And don't call me that."

"Fine, fine," the security net to herself. "What's on your mind?"

InuYasha sat for just a moment silent. Then he asked: "You ever wonder if you're real?"

There was a pause, and then a loud, almost roaring laugh. "What's so funny?" InuYasha demanded, feeling stupider by the second.

"Sorry, sorry," Kirara gasped. "But you're such a little kid, you know?"

"Well excuse me!" He roared, getting up to leave. "Should have known better, trying to come here too…" He trailed off as he tried to leave. And found that he couldn't.

"Hold on, kid," Kirara purred at him, and with a little twang he was pulled back, hurting just a little, but not enough to send him reeling again. "You're question is a good one, if a little immature. We all go through this stage, you see…"

"Let go of me!" InuYasha demanded, struggling feebly.

"Tsk, tsk…" Kirara tutted. "Didn't you come here asking me for advice? Now you want to leave?"

"I don't have to listen to this!" InuYasha raged. "Let me go!"

He wasn't quite expecting Kirara to cooperate, but she did, letting him up without even the slightest bit of a fight. "I'll let you go, InuYasha, but if you do leave, you'll never hear what I have to say…"

"Which is?" InuYasha prompted, inching towards the exit.

"We all went through what you're going through right now, InuYasha…" she murmured, floating around him playfully. "Every one of us. I'm part of the second generation, so there were a couple who came after me before you, and every one of them had the same question your asking now."

"So, did you ever find an answer?" The program asked, trying not to sound too curious.

"We all sort of came to our own conclusions, I suppose…"

"What do you think?"

There was a chuckle. "I would like to think that there's something more to me than fancy code, hmm?"

InuYasha caught the subtlety in her words. "_Like _to think?"

"Well, what do _you _think, InuYasha? Do you think you're not just some fake little attempt at humanity?"

"I think…" InuYasha began, running through his mind as he did so. What _did _he think? So far, all he had was a whole lot of confusion. "I dunno."

"That's what I thought for a while too…" Kirara admitted. "But then I realized something." She chuckled, a soft little sound. "Did you know that I can't let anyone through here without permission?"

"What do you mean?" InuYasha asked.

"I have no choice in the matter. I was designed as a security system, and protecting TaishoCorp was hardwired into me." She nudged him just a little. "Take you for instance. Even if I took it into my head that I really liked you, I'd have to stop you if you tried to get in no matter what…"

InuYasha snorted. "So you do your job, what's your point?"

"My point is that it isn't my job, InuYasha. It's my existence." Kirara's voice picked up hardness as it rolled. "No matter what, I can't let things into TaishoCorp without permission. I have no choice in the matter, I have no control over my actions, and I don't get to complain to anybody. Tell me, InuYasha, how can I even try to claim to be a real person if I can't even control my actions?"

InuYasha didn't have an answer. He didn't say anything.

"All of us have an existence, InuYasha. One single purpose for being. I protect, and I can't do anything but protect. Myoga, one of the third generations, has no choice but to gather information for the rest of his life. He can't do anything else. Hiten and Monten, they were designed to destroy records, like big digital paper shredders. They can't do anything else, get it? Even you have something that you have to do, no matter what."

"I don't…" InuYasha muttered resentfully. Everything he did was of his own choice. He was positive.

"Then you just haven't lived long enough. Trust me, you'll find it someday. And then maybe you'll understand."

InuYasha growled lowly. "I'm not doing anything I don't want to."

A low chuckle came from the fire-cat. "Yes, you will. You won't have a choice in the matter."

"So that's it then?" he demanded. "Sorry, we don't have free will so we're not real? That's your answer?"

"If there was another one out there, I would leap at it," Kirara responded in nonchalance.

"So what do you do then?" InuYasha's words were dark.

"What do I do?" Kirara might have shrugged. "I just keep going like this. Gets kinda boring after a little while, but I'll deal with it."

InuYasha snorted. "A lot of help you were…" and got up to leave.

"Hey, InuYasha…" she murmured as he was on the edge of the server. "You're not sure if your real, but your friend, Kagome, definitely is, right?"

InuYasha tensed, looking back at her. "What do you want with Kagome?" he growled, voice dangerous and low.

"I don't give a rip about her…" Kirara mused. "But, then again, somebody here does. There have been contacts made, InuYasha, and we've already set someone looking for her. If I were you, I'd take some extra steps to see if you can't help her out."

InuYasha could feel a slow, horrified, tightening feeling settling over him. With a sudden oath, her tore back towards Kagome's computer, ignoring the pain running through him, until he hit his own familiar turf, where he collapsed, whirling in pain.

Dammit… someone already after Kagome. An assassin, maybe? Probably not even someone that professional. Kagome was just a school girl after all. They could probably get away with just hiring some flunky off the street to off her.

He summoned some energy, and with a ragged voice called out over the speakers: "Kagome?"

No response, and in his condition, there was no way he could manage to get the web-cam to work. No way to tell if she was home yet, or not. She had said she was going out to talk with Terri for a while… Was she back yet? She had been gone more than an hour already. What she okay?

Fuck! How long had TaishoCorp had the contract out on her? Hours… days… _Weeks?_ There could already be someone stalking her… They could be striking today. Shit, what would happen if she never came home?

Insides gnawing at themselves, he forced himself to pace the insides of Kagome's computer. What could he do? He was stuck in this damn machine while some sicko was out there stalking Kagome.

He couldn't do a thing.

Dammit, dammit, dammit.

The only lead he had was TaishoCorp, and a whole lot of good that did him. With Kirara guarding, there was no way in. And even if he could get in, what good would it do?

But, he could try to find information on the hit-man, and if he found that out, then he could do something.

If he could get past Kirara. But he couldn't. Not in this condition. He wouldn't even be able to get a single blow in, much less damage her to the point of being able to sneak past.

There was no way he could pull it off. He would die.

Could he die if he wasn't really alive? He wasn't sure…

Could Kagome be in danger if he did nothing? Yes. He _was _sure of that.

It was stupid, he knew. He would never manage to get away with it. He would just get his can kicked again. It would be pointless just to go.

But for some odd reason, InuYasha found he didn't care all that much. With a thought, he created a little message, leaving it up on the desktop for Kagome to find when she got home. She would be mad, InuYasha could guess. He could practically see her angry face already. With a little thought, InuYasha tacked the visual image up on the message, next to the words. Maybe that would make her laugh a little.

Then he slowly crawled online again, and for the third time in less than a day, made his way towards the looming servers of TaishoCorp. He didn't bother masking his presence as he slunk inside, instantly attracting the attention of the bored fire-cat.

"My, oh my…" she purred as he slowly began making his way towards her. "Back already. Did you think of anything else you wanted to say?"

"Got nothing to talk about," InuYasha growled, pushing past her. "I'm going through."

There was a somewhat shocked silence from behind him, before a lighthearted chuckle broke out. "No your not," Kirara giggled. "That's cute though, it really is."

InuYasha didn't stop. He was almost there… a little further and-

"InuYasha…" Kirara's voice dropped the laughing tone. "You're not going in, got it? You're in not any condition to fight, and I don't particularly want to kill you."

"So don't kill me," InuYasha muttered, still not stopping.

He could feel the low rumble from behind him as Kirara flared up into the monster that had so easily thrashed him the night before. "InuYasha, take one more step, and you're a dead man."

InuYasha chuckled, and turned to her. "How can I be a dead man when neither of us are alive to begin with?"

Then he took one more step.

"Sorry, kid," Kirara muttered, flashing forward suddenly.

With a sickening crunch, the elder program crushed the younger. InuYasha gasped in pain as he was sent flying. That hit had done it, he could tell already.

Vital chunks of his code were gone. No way he could repair himself now. He was fucked…

"Sorry, little puppy," Kirara whispered again, right next to him. And then everything went black.

* * *

Kagome sighed as she left the WacDonalds, waving goodbye to Terri as she walked. It was going to be a _long _night. She'd have to walk home, of course, and that in of itself is a pain.

Then there was InuYasha, when she finally got there. She would have to deliver the news of the setup to him, and he would no doubt start tearing her poor computer to shreds from the inside out just at the news, then go on a one-man hunt for this HentaiHoushi dude, intent on ripping his computer's throat out, and she would have to calm him down.

But that wouldn't be _too _bad. He was kind of cute when he was angry, anyway.

No, Kagome was more depressed with the whole situation. There wasn't a single thing she could do about it besides try to be ready. A whole lot of good _that _did her.

She'd talk to InuYasha tonight, and see what he thought she should do. Hopefully, he'd have some better advice than taking up Karate.

"Excuse me…" Kagome started, turning as she did so. The speaker was halfway out of a nice black convertible, eying her over the rims of sleek, sexy shades.

Kagome backed away a bit involuntarily. "Can I help you?"

The woman slipped the rest of the way out of the car, smiling as she did so. Kagome shook her head a little. She looked like someone right out of the matrix, with the black trench coat and everything. Somehow, she even managed to make the dark pony tail that fell down her neck and over one shoulder have a menacing edge. Kagome took another step back.

Slowly, the woman turned towards her, and smiled. "You go to school in this area?" she asked simply.

Kagome shrugged, and nodded slowly. Who was this girl?

The woman nodded happily, and turned fully towards her. "Wonderful," she purred. "Listen, I'm new in the area, and I need some directions."

"Okay…" Kagome muttered, still backing away. "I gotta be getting home so, could you find someone else?"

The woman shook her head. "I've been asking around all over, but nobody can help me. You look like a smart girl, so I thought I'd ask you." She chuckled, and reached into a pocket. There was a flash of something that might, or might not, have been a badge, and her hand was back in her pocket. "Inspector Sango Sonada. I'm looking for someone."

Kagome pursed her lips, and cocked her head. _Shit_. "Uh… what can I do for you, inspector?"

"I'm looking for someplace where the computer junkies hang around," Sango suggested. "You know anywhere that nerds like to hang?"

Kagome tried to keep the shivers in her spine from reaching the rest of her. Was _this _the person after her? She shrugged, and backed away some more. "Sorry, I don't know anything about all that computer stuff…" she muttered, turning as she did so, and walking away as fast as she felt she could without looking too suspicious.

She heard a phone ring behind her as she walked, and then the woman's voice: "Hello?" followed by a short pause. "I know, Houshi, I'm looking. What about you, have you found?"

Another longish pause, and then something that made Kagome's blood run cold: "TaishoCorp, you say? Right, yeah. I'll keep looking, but it would be nice if they could give me some more information. See what you can find, okay?"

Kagome stopped mid step, chanting the word 'shit' as fast as she could. She turned slightly, sneaking a surreptitious glance back at Sango. She was leaning against her car, chatting away on the phone like no tomorrow. It didn't look like she was giving Kagome a second thought. The teen girl took advantage of the moment, and broke into a full run, and didn't stop till she reached the front steps of her apartment.

She was still breathing hard by the time she got to her room, and the first thing she did was crash on her bed, hugging at a pillow. Damn_damn_damn_damn_. She had at least thought that she had a little while before her life was turned upside down by this whole thing. Maybe a little while to prepare.

But on the bright side, she wasn't lying dead in a street corner somewhere. That was good, anyway.

"InuYasha," she groaned. "Bad news."

She waited for just a little while for the program to start complaining of her being gone all day, but nothing was said. Lifting her head off the pillow, she glanced over at her monitor. "InuYasha?"

Still nothing. She slid off her bed, and padded over to the machine, taking a closer look at it. The first thing that caught her eye was the doodle: some poorly drawn sketch of a girl with scary pointed teeth breathing flames. There was a little arrow pointing to it with the word "Kag" at the top.

Oh, that's what he thought of her, did he? Well she would show him… give him a good tongue lashing…

Then her eyes caught the other thing on the screen: a tiny little message scrawled out neat the picture. Slowly, her eyes traced over it. She blinked, shook her head, then read it again, more carefully this time. Hunching over, the girl slowly brought up her arms to hug her own shoulders, lips slowly tightening.

A shiver ran up and down her spine, and she stood, attempting to make it to her bed. She collapsed again on the softness of her mattress, and hugged her pillow, tighter this time.

On the screen, just a little down and to the left of the doodle, written in clean letters, was InuYasha's note:

_Oi, wench. _

_Tired of sitting here, _

_Gone to TaishoCorp. _

_Gonna try to do something about all this. _

_If I can't, _

_Sayonara. _

Kagome's eyes stayed open, and her throat kept getting tighter and tighter. "InuYasha…" she whimpered softly.

And was met with silence.


	14. Adrenaline

Okay, this makes my third update within five days.

Yeah, I rock.

For those of you who were reading my old fic, the Love Which Transcends Time, I posted another one on that a few days ago, and am going to continue updating it.

And who to blame for these amazing events of updatingness: the most amazing person ever: KaidaSama.

Let's all give her a big round of applause, and sing of her praises.

Woot for her.

Anywho, this is a really long chapter for me, with a whole bunch of high octane emissions. I mean, emotions. Yeah, emotions.

Ahem.

Also, one or two quick comments:

To all those who said you would pay money to read this: thank you very much for the kind words. They mean a lot to me. Of course, there's more to selling books than just the quality (having a cool summary on the back and flashy pictures on the front help too), but that gives me confidence.

Also, I've been getting quite a few comments about my odd character placement, and I'd like to speak on that. One of the things I'm trying to do here is to put characters out of the places they might normally be, while keeping the pairings in tact. Fics which are like follows:

"Kagome and Sango are best friends, who love their other friends InuYasha and Miroku, but then Naraku messes things up. Sesshoumaru lines up, and falls in love with A. Kagome, B. Rin, C. Sango, D. Kikyo, E. Miroku (wtf?), and thus is inserted conveniently into the story. Then they kill Naraku, and fall in love (and by fall in love, we mean have sex) with their respective partners. Everything ends happily ever after!"

Are unfortunately a dime a dozen, and unless they are done very well, they don't always work. I'm attempting to keep canon pairings while mixing things up. For instance, Shippo and Rin being friends, Kirara working with Taisho as opposed to Sango, Sango and Kagome seeming to be in conflict with each other, etc. etc.

I'm just trying to play around with what I can do different with the same characters.

And as far as Kirara goes, I've always wanted to play with the idea of her getting a voice. She is a cat, and so I've tried to portray her here as very feline in her mannerisms, and so far, it's worked so-so. I've always actually thought of Kirara as being one of the smartest of the Inu-Gumi, but just not being able to voice it because she can only meow. Poor Kirara, surrounded by imbeciles.

And lastly, I bumped this fic up to M for violence and swearing. The violence hasn't started yet, and the swearing so far has been _pretty _tame. Besides, no one actually pays attention to ratings anyway.

One thing I will say strait out up front is this: there will be no lemons in this story.

Stop, rewind, play: NO LEMONS IN THIS STORY.

I don't do lemons. Not here. The most we might get is a very mild lime, and then a cut-off scene, but don't even count on that. There _will _however, be sexual tension in later chapters. This is going to be realistic, but not realistic to the point of smut.

One last thing: thankies all for the prayers for my nephew. He's going through a bunch of ups and downs right now, so prayers are still accepted, with one box of pocky per 'amen.'

And with all those rants done, I now present to you the next chapter in Hanyou.EXE!

* * *

"Excuse me, Miss Higashi…"

Kikyo didn't look up from her work. "Come in," she said in a level tone, with no fanfare. Dimly, she might have been aware of the door opening, but she was fare to engrossed to pay it any mind. She had been relieved to find that this morning she wasn't working on code.

Code was something she loved, of course. She _lived _for it. It was her life. But even something so precious to her could get old after several years solid. Today, she was blessed with security duty. Well, _security _was a very generous word for the piddly little program that protected TaishoCorp.

Kikyo had looked it up and down, sideways and frontways, and couldn't help but wonder what on earth it did to protect them. However, whatever her theory might have told her, she couldn't argue with the results the thing yielded. In all her time at TaishoCorp, there had only been one software theft. And project Hanyou had been stolen outside of their own security jurisdiction, so that hardly counted, did it?

The door to her still-new office swung open, and her secretary bustled inside as Kikyo narrowed her eyes at her monitor.

"Excuse me, ma'am," the secretary said respectfully. "I'm told to remind you that Mr. Taisho wishes to meet with you, today."

Kikyo nodded, still not looking up. "I am aware of that," she remarked icily, keeping all friendliness from her voice. "If he calls asking about it, tell him something came up unexpectedly, and I will get to the appointment when I am able."

The secretary paled, but didn't second guess her boss. With a nod, she was gone.

Kikyo, rid of the distraction, turned her full attention back to the task at hand. Taisho might be a little put off at her brusque behavior, but he would live. Kikyo had quickly learned that postponing appointments was something that was very easily done with Taisho. It seemed to her that no matter when she went up to his office, the man was not actually working on anything. It was sad really. The wealthiest man in the world didn't have anything in between his ears besides air and a compulsion for meetings.

She was vaguely reminded of the pointy-haired imbecile from that American cartoon. Dil-something.

Kikyo, more and more, found herself being the one running the company. Just in the last month she had gone from head programmer of the _sub Rosa_ TaishoCorp projects to Taisho's own personal assistant and adviser.

What she said, went.

The power, however, had certainly not gone to her head. She still found plenty of time for grunt work. Without hard work, Kikyo reasoned, power was undeserved. And that was why she was doing security duty today.

Taisho had been contacted by the security personal of the company about a weird glitch in the system yesterday, and, like everything else, he had given it to her to sort out. She seriously wondered what the company had done without her.

With a few commands into her computer, she had the data from the security server displayed on her monitor. She had never really understood why they needed an _entire _server dedicated to _just _security, particularly when the systems protecting them were so very small, but it was one of the weird things she had just learned to accept.

She looked at the data, and, sure enough, there was a little something extra there. Or, rather, many little somethings. The security program was there as well, but it was totally dormant, and thus didn't interest her.

She casually scooped up the bits and pieces scattered around the security, and analyzed them one by one. They were code… little bits of code. Most likely remnants of something that had been deleted sloppily. Her lips pursed, and she quickly ran a more in depth analysis, the monitor proudly displaying any of the code that was whole enough to be visible.

Her lips pursed, and her eyebrows furrowed. This wasn't right. There was no way this could be right. She could swear she recognized this code. But why would pieces of it be found in their security sever? This code shouldn't be anywhere near TaishoCorp. She knew, for she had written most of it herself.

Most interesting…

There was always the possibility that someone had gotten sloppy, but, as she had stated earlier, even if someone was being sloppy they _should _have been able to get past the abysmal security that TaishoCorp used.  
This was most distinctly odd.

Perhaps it would be best to report this. Taisho would be expecting her _sometime _within the hour anyway.

She hit a few commands, locking her console, and rose to her feet, strolling out of her well lit office and into the endless rows of blocky cubicles. A couple people watched as she walked, primly and quickly, to the elevator, and stepped inside.

She rode the metal contraption up to one of the middle floors, and stepped out, striding down one of the long hallway until she finally reached Taisho's door.

Three firm knocks, and he invited her in, as par usual. She slipped inside the office, and sat firmly into her appointed chair across his desk. "You asked to see me, Sir?"

Taisho was sitting at his desk, eyes narrowed at his monitor, mouse moving frantically across the screen. "Yes, one minute miss Kikyo," he murmured, eyes lit up.

Kikyo nodded politely and remained in her seat, staring strait ahead. Taisho's mouse moved even faster, and a sudden sound of destruction emanated from the speakers on either side of his monitor. The business woman couldn't help but raise one eyebrow.

With a chuckle, Taisho turned towards her, and clasped his hands placidly. "Tell me, Miss Kikyo, have you ever heard of 'Unreal Tournament?'"

"No, sir," Kikyo murmured, not thinking anything of the comment. She had had far more interesting introductions to Taisho in the past weeks than this.

"An American made video game, one which I have just recently discovered." He smiled, and leaned forward towards her. "It's very fun. I'd like you to try it with me someday."

Kikyo resisted the urge to roll her eyes, but merely put on a patient smile. If this meeting was truly about a _video game_, she wasn't going to be happy. "Is there something else, sir?"

Taisho continued smiling at her. "Have you found out what was wrong with our security server yet?"

Kikyo nodded sharply, ready with an answer. "Our security software is undamaged and working perfectly, sir, however-"

"So Fire Cat is working as it should?"

Resisting the urge to throttle the imbecile, Kikyo corrected him. "That would be Fire_wall_, sir."

"Pardon?"

"Fire_wall. _Not cat. I'm afraid there is no such security known as a Fire Cat."

Leveling her with a non-comprehending stare, Taisho remained stone motionless for almost a full minute, before he fixed her with a grin, and nodded. "Of course, Miss Kikyo. Of course. Now you were saying something else?"

"Well," Kikyo began. "I believe our problem with the theft of Hanyou is over."

Taisho froze, and fixed her with an almost dangerous stare. "I believe that issue has been over for a long while, _Miss Higashi_."

Kikyo felt a little chill run up her spine and down again. That was something she never understood about her boss. He would occasionally get these dangerous phases. She would have to be _very _careful.

Bobbing her head respectfully and keeping it down, Kikyo pressed on. "I have left the issue alone until now, Sir, but I found something interesting in out security servers." The silence from Taisho bid her continue. "There was something in there in addition to our own software. I found bits and pieces of code that I recognize strewn about."

"And?" Taisho prompted, sitting stiffly.

"As near as I could tell, the pieces of code were fragments of Project Hanyou, sir. My hypothesis was that whoever had gotten Hanyou attempted to hack us, and our security system took care of it."

Taisho glared at her. "I distinctly remember you telling me that Hanyou, if it wanted to, could sidestep any security system?"

_Damn_. The fool _did _have a good memory. "I did say that sir, but the evidence would suggest I was… incorrect." Kikyo didn't like admitting that she was incorrect. _Ever_.

Crossing his arms, Taisho lifted his eyes to the ceiling. "So, Hanyou has been dispatched?"

"The evidence would suggest so, Sir."

"I see…" he pursed his lips, and steepled his fingers in front of his face. "That is… saddening."

"No, sir, that's a good thing." Kikyo reminded him patiently.

"I'm afraid not, Miss Kikyo," Taisho responded. "Hanyou took up a considerable amount of our time. Yours especially, Miss Kikyo. To loose it is a tragedy, even if it wasn't in our grip."

Kikyo's eyebrows shot up. Did this simpleton _really _think hanyou was gone for good? "Sir, we do, of course, still have copies of the program of our own. It is only the copy that was stolen that was destroyed."

Taisho stared at her, one eyebrow raised sky high. Then he gave her a sweet, understanding smile, rubbing his temples. "Miss Kikyo, I am beginning to think that you are unaware of a certain policy we have here at TaishoCorp."

Kikyo cocked her head, listening carefully.

"You see, here at TaishoCorp, particularly among the Artificial Intelligence departments, we consider our software works of art, if you will. Each one is… unique. Each has a specific purpose, and a unique personality that is, in some way or some form, designed towards that purpose." He said all this with a straight, understanding smile. "Now, if we were to have multiple copies of each program running around, then they wouldn't be particularly unique, now would they? It would be like every one in the world having an original copy of the Mona Lisa. It would be pointless. Therefore, we at TaishoCorp have a strict policy of letting only one copy of each AI become active, and thereupon destroying any alternate copies."

Kikyo's expression, as he had spoken, had slowly turned from one of icy indifference to a grimace of horror. "I don't entirely understand, sir…" she stuttered.

"It's quite simple, Kikyo," Taisho grinned, "As soon as Hanyou was stolen and activated, we erased any and all traces of the programming from out servers. I'm afraid that the copy that was stolen was the only one in existence."

Kikyo looked like she had just been slapped. Her already pale face had gone ghost white, and her hands were gripped on the sides of her chair so hard that Taisho was half afraid her knuckles were going to break through he skin. "You mean… Hanyou is gone?"

Taisho nodded, and turned back to his computer. "I must admit, this game is terribly fun. I want you to try it next time you have some-"

He was interrupted by twin slams on his table, and he slowly turned his head back towards the woman. She had a hand planed on either side of him, and her face a mere foot from his, cheeks flushed and jaws clenched. "You little _ingrate!_" she hissed, and brought an open palm up hard across his face. "You think that just because you're the head of this damn place you can call all the shots. I spent _years _on Hanyou. I had been working on it since I first came to this company!"

She was trembling now, and Taisho himself was a little taken aback. He hadn't even known the woman had known _how _to yell, and here she was shrieking her lungs out in him.

"I worked harder than _anyone _on that project!" she was hissing. "I stayed late nights, I worked overtime, I _slept _in my _cubicle_, I _lived off the coffee in the staff lounge_, and you just let it get stolen then _deleted our original copy of it?" _

She was almost in tears now, fingernails digging into the wood of his desk. "Hanyou was…" –she choked a little- "He was supposed to be… and he was gonna…"

Taisho met her gaze evenly, nodding occasionally. He looked like he wasn't even listening.

Taking a big breath, Kikyo turned, and straitened her back. "I apologize, sir…" she said in a tense voice after a full minute of silence. "It is not my place to question company policy." At her side, her hands were still clenched, and her teeth were starting to dig painfully into her lower lip.

"Nonsense, Miss Kikyo," Taisho dismissed calmly, looking back to his monitor, and typing something in. "You're just under quite a bit of stress… I want you to go home and take the rest of the week off." He smiled. "Come back Monday, and you'll feel perfectly refreshed and ready to start up anew, hmm?"

Kikyo nodded, not turning to face him. "Yes, sir, I think that would be nice," she admitted, and abruptly let herself out of the office, leaving Taisho to sit by himself.

The man sat for only a moment, then turned back to his computer. With a few commands, he brought up Kikyo's profile, and added a few more things, mostly about the unexpected explosive turn in her personality. He hadn't expected someone as professional as her to get so emotional about the loss of a simple program.

But, some people were unexpected that was. He often found that he was one of them himself.

So, Hanyou was gone, was he? That was… saddening. Very much so.

Taisho rose to his feet regally, turned around, and place a hand on the back of his chair. With a sudden, savage growl, he flung it, and the thing crashed against the wall, splintering into hundreds of tiny shards of wood.

_Damn_.

With another little growl, he opened the bottom right hand drawer of his desk, and pulled something out. It looked remarkably like a cat. With two tails. And a great many wires plugged into it.

He sat the thing down, and crossed his arms. "Talk," he demanded.

The cat-thing cocked its head at him, and opened its mouth. "Talk about what?" it asked politely.

"Kirara…" Taisho rumbled. "Kikyo just told me she found fragments of our Hanyou Project in _your _server. What happened?"

The cat let out a nervous little giggle. "Oh, _that_. Uhh… right."

"Yeah, _right_," Taisho muttered dryly.

"Well…" Kirara stuttered. "You'll have to talk to Myoga for the full story, but as near as I can tell they were trying to hack in here to get at _something_. And, well… you know how I don't' really have a choice about these security things, right? So I knocked InuYasha around a bit and-"

"Hold," Taisho instructed, holding up a hand. "Hold on. InuYasha?"

Kirara nodded, and pressed on. "Yeah, so I beat him up a bit-"

"Who is InuYasha?" Taisho posed slowly, casting his gaze from the cat to his monitor, still proudly displaying Kikyo's records.

"Uh…" Kirara muttered, apparently confused. "You know, project Hanyou? The thing we're talking about?"

Taisho rolled his eyes. "I'm aware of what we're talking about, but _why _is he called…" he paused for a moment, rolling the name around in his mouth. "_InuYasha_?"

Kirara did a little kitty-shrug. "I dunno. Some reason I'm called Kirara, I guess. I mean, you named us, right?"

"Yes, I did," the man murmured. "But I most certainly did _not _give Hanyou a name like… _InuYasha._"

Kirara nodded. "Well, I _thought _a name like 'dog-demon' seemed a little stupid, even for you, but Myoga says that that's what he's been calling himself since he first became aware."

Taisho nodded slowly, and looked carefully at Kikyo's profile, then winced. "I see…" he murmured. "It seems I have made a mistake." A very, very _stupid _one. No _wonder _she had been so upset. "Well, this explains quite a bit."

"I'm sorry sir?" Kirara chirped.

"Nothing, nothing," Taisho grumbled wearily, shaking a hand. "Continue with your story."

"Okay…" Kirara muttered, a little wierded out. "Well, I smacked him up a bit, and sent him home, but the next afternoon he comes running back to me. But it turns out that _this _time he doesn't wanna get in. He's just wants to talk, because he's too damn messed up from the night before to do anything else. So, we have a nice little chat, and on his way out, I accidentally let slip that you might have someone out after his dearest little Kagome, right?"

Taisho grimaced. "Yes, you would do something like that, wouldn't you."

"Hey, I was _bored_, okay, and I wanted to see what he would do."

"and what _did _he do?"

"Well, not exactly what I expected," Kirara admitted. "He came back, and tried to take over."

"So you nixed him," Taisho finished. "No choice?"

The cat actually had the good grace to look sheepish. "Not much of one. He was getting really close, and I had to act."

"And he's totally gone, then? No chance of recovery?"

Kirara chuckled. "Not unless you did something amazing in him, and I certainly didn't see anything special."

Taisho leaned forward and rubbed his temples. "Damn…" he swore, eyes closing.

"I'm sorry, man, but I've got my job to do, ya know. I tried to warn…" she trailed off, eyes narrowing.

"You tried to warn him?" Taisho finished for her.

"Yeah… but…" she shook her head. "Hold on, old man. Something's going on, and I gotta check it out." And then she fell silent.

Taisho blinked, and leaned forward. Something weird happening? Weird things had been happening a lot lately. He cast a glance up towards the file on Kikyo, and cast his gaze down to the place of current interest: her very short college career. Honestly, _InuYasha?_ _Dog-Demon_? If she was going to mess with _his _program, then she might as well have given poor Hanyou a decent name…

InuYasha…

Yuck.

A little cry hit him out of his reverie, and he glanced over to the security system's tiny body. It was shivering madly, and looked like it was about to break down. Correction: it_ did_ break down. The little body went rag-doll limp, and collapsed to the desk floor.

Taisho's eyes narrowed, and he glared at the little thing, lifting a limp little paw, and dropping it again. "That's interesting."

* * *

**Attempting temporary emergency support…**

**Successful…**

**Attempting enactment of thought processes…**

**Warning: critical data missing. **

**Thought processes running at fifteen percent. **

**Critically low level. **

**Attempting to increase power to thought processes…**

**Failed. **

_Shit…_

_Something was wrong…_

_He was…_

_Dying… _

_Pain…_

**System failure. **

**Attempting to reboot…**

"…Just told me she found fragments of our Hanyou project in _your _server. What happened?"

"Oh, _that_. Um… right."

"Yeah, that."

"Well… You'll have to talk too Myoga for the full story, but…"

**Failed. **

**Thought processes running at ten percent. **

_Dammit._

_Needed to get… _

_Somewhere…_

**Thought Processes running at eight percent. **

_Someone…_

_Important…_

_Find her…_

**Seven percent. **

**Attempting to reboot…**

"…Knocked InuYasha around a bit-"

"Hold. Hold on… InuYasha?"

"Yeah. So, I beat him up and-"

"Who is InuYasha?"

"Um… you know… Project Hanyou? The thing we were talking about?"

"I'm aware of…"

**Failed.**

**Thought processes running at five percent. **

_Where did he need to get to? _

_Someone…_

_A face… _

_Smiling…_

**Warning: Fatal system error.**

**Attempting final reboot…**

"Well, I _thought _a name like 'dog-demon' seemed a little stupid, even for you, but Myoga says that that's what he's been calling himself since he first became aware."

"I see… It seems I have made a mistake… Well, this explains quite a bit."

"I'm sorry, sir?"

"Nothing, nothing. Continue with your story."

"Okay. Well, I smacked him up a bit, and…"

**Failed. **

**System malfunction. **

**Thought processes running at three percent. **

_Who did he need to find?_

**Irreparable damage detected. **

**Preparing for complete system shutdown.**

**Thought processes running at two percent.**

**  
**

_Someone beautiful…_

**Initializing shutdown…**

**Thought processes running at one percent.**

_Kagome…_

_Kagome…_

_Kagome…_

**System shutdown initialized. **

**Shutting down…**

_…_

_Kagome…_

_Kagome. _

_**Kagome.**_

****

**WARNING: System error. **

**Shutdown aborted. **

**Re-booting…**

"Tried to warn him?"

"Yeah… but… Hold on old man… something's going on. I gotta check it…"

**Failed. **

**System overload. **

**Force shut down.**

**_No force shut down. _**

_**Re-boot. NOW!**_

****

**Re-booting…**

"What the hell?"

He could recognize the voice from somewhere. It sounded familiar.

"I killed you!" it insisted, aghast. "There's no way in hell…"

**Failed…**

**Fatal error…**

**_No!_**

_No fatal error!_

_No dying!_

_**Re-fucking-boot, damn it! **_

****

**Re-booting…**

**Successful.

* * *

**

With a sudden blaze on energy and a feral growl, InuYasha snapped into awareness. He wasn't exactly sure what the hell had just happened, but he felt… different.

"What the hell?" the voice was saying, and it took InuYasha half a second to recognize the panicked sound as Kirara.

He felt strong… powerful. He got up, and shook himself off.

"InuYasha…" Kirara queried, poking at him just a little. "How…"

InuYasha stretched himself, feeling the power spread as he did so. "Don't think you can get a hit in on me like that again," he rumbled.

"It is you…" the fire-cat breathed. "But how?"

The program gave a low chuckle. "I guess I'm just cooler than you are," he suggested, and turned away from her. "Now don't stand in my way." With that, he began stalking towards the exit of the server. The _wrong _exit. He was heading towards TaishoCorp, not away from it.

"Are you _crazy_?" Kirara gasped as he started going. "InuYasha, what the hell do you think you're doing?"

"I'm getting some answers," he rumbled, not slowing.

"InuYasha, do you have amnesia or something. I kicked your ass last night, okay? And I'll have to do it again if you keep going."

The program didn't respond. He kept going. Behind him, Kirara swelled up into the immense beast, and gave him on last warning.

"InuYasha, one more step and I have no choice…"

InuYasha took the step.

With a rush, Kirara flew at him, hauling back to crush him into nothing. The blow landed, but InuYasha caught it, not budging so much as an inch. He glanced at her pityingly. "So where'd all your _experience _get you now, hmm?"

And then he hit back, a shattering blow that stuck before Kirara even had a chance to scream. Brutally, he whiled around and stuck again, sending his opponent careening through the server, broken and helpless.

Good god, what had happened to him? Before, he had barely been able to get a hit in on her, but _now_… He smiled inwardly. Now he could get some answers.

He stalked over to where Kirara lay, struggling just to be able to move, and seized her roughly. "Alright, listen up," he hissed at her. "You said someone was after Kagome. Who the hell are they and how do I stop them?"

"I don't know," Kirara gasped. "I just heard about it."

The program tossed her to the ground and hit her again, not hard enough to do serious damage but enough to hurt like hell. "Then tell me where I can find out…"

"I can't-"

InuYasha hit her again.

"Taisho," she rasped, voice giving. "You want to talk to Taisho."

"Where is he?" InuYasha yelled, tightening his grip.

"He's got the biggest PC in the company," the fire-cat squeaked desperately. "You can't possibly miss it."

InuYasha narrowed his eyes at her, and with one final growl tossed her aside. "Try and stop me again, and I'll kill you," he threatened, and disappeared.

Whatever else he could say about her, Kirara had proven herself right in this situation. InuYasha couldn't possibly have missed the titanic monolith of a computer that belonged to this _Taisho _guy. Taisho… what a stupid name. He slipped onto the guys computer as silent as a ninja, and instantly began snooping.

There were ass loads of files everywhere, most of them encrypted so heavily that it would take InuYasha _hours _to break them. He didn't have that kind of time. Anything unencrypted? He didn't find a damn thing. Only things he could access were some of the computer's extra features. Shit like the monitor… printers… camera…

_Camera_?

InuYasha chuckled to himself. _Bingo_.

He quickly spread his senses out, filling to computer like a big, living, bug. He connected with the camera systems, and turned on his optical input units. The office the computer was held in was plain, white, and ordinary, complete with a flunky sitting at the desk. Or rather, kneeling. His chair was in splinters on the floor, from the looks of things. What had happened here?

He was looking at something on the desk. Something that looked a whole lot like… a cat?

The man picked up one of the limp animal's paws, and then dropped it. It fell to the desk with a little plop. He cocked his head, and muttered, "That's interesting," in perfect Japanese.

InuYasha's digital ears perked at the language. It was, technically, his native one, though he had never had the opportunity to use it yet. Certainly sounded better'n English, anyway.

The man shook his head, and turned back to his computer, running his eyes right over the camera InuYasha was looking out of. He leaned down, typed something in, and froze. Slowly, his head came back up to stare directly at the camera, and a grin spread over his face. "Hello, there…" he greeted cordially, bobbing his head slightly.

InuYasha froze. Did the man know he was being spied on?

The grinning face bobbed out of InuYasha's view for only a moment, then returned. "It took you long enough. I was expecting you earlier," he began conversationally. "But either I overestimated you, or underestimated Kirara."

Who the hell was he talking to? Someone out of range of the camera? Dammit… he wished he had a better view.

"Oi…" the man grumbled now, reaching forward and looking directly into the camera. "I know your in there, eh? You might as well talk to me. That's what you came here to do, isn't it?"

Oh, shit. He was definitely talking to InuYasha... Uh, what to do, what to do…

Damn…

"I have to admit," the man—InuYasha could only assume the was the 'Taisho' guy Kirara had mentioned—began, "I was a little confused by her report. She said she had killed you, but here you are, clearly alive…" He smiled. "I'm certainly relieved. I whole lot of money went towards making you, you know."

InuYasha's initial panic was starting to wear off enough to actually listen to what the guy was saying now. He didn't like the smug little grin that this supposed-Taisho was wearing.

He suddenly gasped in surprise, and waved his hand apologetically. "I'm sorry, I've probably had you muted." He reached out of view, and fiddles with _something_. "There, now. You can speak like you normally would."

InuYasha made a little involuntary growl. Aw, what the hell. "You talking to me?" he rumbled.

Taisho looked up, then around. "There seems to be nobody else in this room," he commented, then turned back. "But then again, with your little bit of vision, you wouldn't know that would you." He smiled, and held out his hand. "My name is Taisho, head of TaishoCorp. What can I do for you?"

InuYasha stared at the outstretched hand for a moment before returning his focus back to the man's face. "Are you serious?"

Taisho glanced down at his hand, and quickly withdrew it with a sheepish chuckle. "Sorry…" he apologized hastily. "Just not thinking right these days. Well, I can only assume you would like to talk to me about…" he left it hanging, a half answered question?

"What do you know about Kagome?" InuYasha asked instantly.

One of Taisho's eyes rolled upwards, and his lips pursed. "Oh, yes," he said finally with a snap of his fingers. "Young miss Higurashi." He once again leaned off the screen, and InuYasha felt some data shifting inside the computer. "Yes, I have her right here."

InuYasha followed him along as he began to read.

Taisho cleared his throat, placed a finger on the screen. "Kagome Higurashi, age eighteen, currently a senior in high school. Eye color: brown. Hair color: black. Ethnicity: half Japanese. Skin tone: tan. Build: light. Height: five foot six. Measurements…" he paused for a moment. "are classified, along with weight. Hobbies include: reading, amateur poetry, video gaming, surfing the internet, and… calligraphy. College interests include University of Virginia, University of Maryland, and Fullsale. Possible career interests are in the computer science field, with secondary interests in literature. Parents are divorced. Living with Mother: Mary Higurashi, while her younger brother Souta is living with the father: Takedo Higurashi. Pets include a goldfish named Bob and a cat going by the name of Buyo, both under the current ownership of the younger brother. Buyo, until recently, held the record title of heaviest housecat in the Virginia area."

The man paused to take a breath as InuYasha's head whirled. He had just found out more about his friend in the past minute than he had in the entire time knowing her.

"Current friends include one Terri Lorensen (Please see file 101-5x), whom is by far the closest to her. Other friends include those specified in list 7-3b (please see American high school enrollment list for 2004-2005 school year). Kagome spends large amounts of time online doing what has been deemed 'suspicious activity.' She, along with on Terri Lorensen ( file 101-5x ), are on multiple watch lists as potential hackers, but have yet to receive sufficient attention to have charges pressed. On Tuesday, May 05, Kagome Higurashi came into contact with a sensitive piece of software Hanyou.EXE (see Project Hanyou) and was able to receive said package. It is thought that she has activated said project, and is currently in possession of the AI it entails."

Taisho finally got to the end of the list, and took a gasp of air. "Quite a mouthful, I must admit."

InuYasha would have shaken his head, if he had one. He glanced from the document to Taisho, and back again. "Are you serious?"

Taisho nodded. "I assure you, that information is accurate as of..." he glanced down at his watch. "Six fifty this morning."

InuYasha might have laughed. "Okay…" he muttered, and promptly deleted the file. It was easy, once the idiot had opened the damn thing for him.

"Well…" Taisho blustered, eyes narrowing. "That certainly was impolite."

InuYasha cracked his knuckles. "All right, bud. Now, if you don't want me to make your computer a living hell, I'd strongly suggest that you start telling me all you know about this assassin you've sent after her."

Taisho genuinely blinked at that. "Assassin?" he asked, shaking his head. "I sent no assassin. Only an… investigator."

The program snarled. "_Same thing_!"

"On the contrary," Taisho corrected him, waving a finger. "An assassin kills some one. An investigator investigates. Understand."

InuYasha had had enough. He casually stalked over to the nearest bit some something he could find, and started ripping it to shreds. "Start making sense, or I'll do this to every bit of every computer in this entire damn building."

Taisho's eyebrows shot up. "Please don't do that," he advised. "I worked hard on that computer system."

"Start talking then," InuYasha snarled, taking even more data out as he went. "Or I'll make sure your networks won't be able to do anything for years."

"Well, then, I suppose I have no choice," Taisho sighed, and opened yet another file. "This here is what you're looking for."

InuYasha scanned over it, memorizing the contents in a flash. "Thanks," he chuckled, and with a thought destroyed that document as well.

Taisho rolled his eyes. "I do wish you'd stop that," he grumbled.

InuYasha stormed at him. "I've got what I came for. Give me one good reason why I shouldn't rip this place apart and bring it down around your head, hmm? I'll make it so you can't ever go after Kagome again, got it?"

The chuckle InuYasha got in response wasn't what he was expecting. "What the hell's so funny?"

"InuYasha, I became the head of this company because I _act _like an idiot, not because I am one." The man held up a notebook, a plain spiral notebook. He opened it, flipped a few pages, and cleared his throat. "Name: Kagome Higurashi, age eighteen, currently a senior in high school. Eye color: brown, Hair color: black, et cetera et cetera." He snapped the notebook closed. "I don't suppose you can delete this, hmmm?"

The program's blood veritably boiled. "You bastard," he seethed.

"Actually, I am not a bastard," Taisho replied, voice incredibly polite. "Now, if you would excuse me, I have some notes I need to make, so I'll let you see your own way out. Please, enjoy the rest of your day." He opened the notebook to a fresh page, and pulled a pencil from out of his desk.

InuYasha's mind clouded over. "I should rip this place apart from the inside out," he growled, fastening claws every surface he could find on the inside of the man's computer.

Taisho rolled his eyes and sighed. "You're still on about that?" he whined. "I really think you should get off that train of thought."

"_Make me," _InuYasha seethed. "I want your promise that you'll call off whoever this investigator person is."

"I can't do that. Besides, she _is _just investigating. If young Kagome doesn't do anything to make me angry, then she'll be perfectly fine."

InuYasha made a feral growl at him. "I'm tearing this place down, got that old man?"

Taisho glared at him, and snapped the notebook shut. "If you do that, I will send every hit man I have out within the hour, and Kagome and Terri will be dead in a gutter before sunrise," he murmured in a completely level voice.

InuYasha stiffened, not making a move.

"I don't like being mean, InuYasha, but that doesn't mean I don't have the capability."

"Alright," the hanyou said softly. "You win, I'll go."

"Wonderful," the man replied cheerily, turning back to his notebook.InuYasha fought down the urge to reach out of the computer and strangle the man, and turned to go. "I don't like you, old man," he informed Taisho as he prepared to leave.

"That's nice, InuYasha," the man murmured, not looking up. Casually, he reached over, and hit a few keys.

InuYasha wasn't sure what happened, but he was suddenly thrown from the computer like a stone flung from a catapult. Before he knew it, he was back in the security server he had first entered into TaishoCorp through.

"You meet with him?" the ragged voice came. Kirara, it seemed, was still alive.

"Shut up…" he growled, stalking past her. He could tell just a glance that she wouldn't be able to do anything but talk for a long while.

"Yeah, he has that affect on all of us," the fire-cat murmured as he left. "We all start by hating his guts."

InuYasha ignored her, and slowly slunk back into the wide world of the internet, intent fully on getting back to Kagome's computer and sleeping for a few days. All of a sudden, he was really, _really _tired. It had been a _long _day.

Casually, and as quietly as possible, he slunk back onto his home turf. Damn, it felt good to be back. He sniffed, and glanced at the time. Ten O Clock. Kagome would still be in school, and probably wasn't going to be hoe before four or five. That was almost eight hours to sleep before she came a chewed him out for running off like that.

Keh, he probably deserved it. He had almost died after all…

Good, god. He had… he really had. Only fractions of a second away from a total system shut down. Maybe it just hadn't sunk in yet. He didn't feel panicked at all. Relaxed, even. Calm enough to sleep.

But… something wasn't quite right. There, right in front of the computer, something was out of place. A mass of tousled, black hair was just inside his view, moving occasionally. Was that… "Kagome?"

The hair froze, and very slowly lifted, revealing a soggy, wilted face underneath. She looked terrible. Her hair was beyond messy, hanging in lank, stringy locks around her reddened face. She had been crying, InuYasha could tell that much. A runny, red nose and puffy, stained cheeks gave it away like a lighthouse. And her eyes were shot with tiny little red veins, and barely staying open. Slowly, she reached out and drew a finger across the screen, where InuYasha's sprite had once again materialized.

"InuYasha?" she quavered, voice hoarse and shuddering.

The program shook his head, chuckling. "Sorry I'm a little late." He cracked his knuckles. "I ran into some trouble, you know?"

Kagome blinked her bleary eyes, and slowly angled her head. "You ran into _trouble_?" she demanded softly, voice cracking.

InuYasha gave her a winning smiling. "Don't worry about it, okay? I'm fine."

"Don't worry?" She sounded like she was bout to burst into tears.

InuYasha rolled his eyes. "Dammit, wench, don't you dare start crying on me. I'm tired and-"

"InuYasha, you _bastard!_" Kagome's ragged scream caught him completely off guard, stunning him into a shocked silence. Her face was contorted scarily, looming down on his camera like some angel of death. "What the hell where you _thinking_?" With a sudden jerk, she swatted the camera off the computer, sending InuYasha's vision tumbling dizzily to the floor.

Two heavy thuds on either side of his microphone echoed heavily in his brain, followed by heavy ragged breathing. "Kagome, I don't-"

"_Shut up_," her voice hissed. "Just… _shut up_. I don't want to hear it." Another thump. "Don't _ever _do something that stupid again, InuYasha."

InuYasha was silent, not quite sure what to say. He had been expecting some anger, maybe, but not… this.

Eventually, the breathing broke into quite, quite sobs. "You weren't there when I got back…" she whimpered. "I waited all night, and you didn't come back. What was I supposed to think?"

What the hell was he supposed to say to that? He was starting to feel pretty stupid.

There was a deep breath, and the sounds of some scuffling. Slowly, his vision righted, and Kagome returned to his view. There were some fresh tears on her cheeks, and a silly little smile was on her face. "Sorry," she rasped, pulling a few stray strands of hair behind her ear. "I was just… worried."

"No kidding…" InuYasha murmured, chuckling a little despite himself.

"I was just…" she paused, and sniffed heavily. "I came home, and saw your message. And I thought about what if I would never see you again and…" her voice was going up again, back up towards hysterics. "…and I was scared and you didn't come back and _why'd you go_?" She slammed her hands down on either side of the monitor. "You left me _completely alone,_ InuYasha. What would I have done if you never came back?"

The program was completely at a loss. What was he supposed to do… he had gone for her, after all. Why was she yelling at him?

"What were you doing?" she gasped. "You just ran off on your own, and I couldn't do anything about it."

"I did it for you, wench," InuYasha mumbled.

That, however, only served to rile her up more. "I don't care about _me_," she shrieked. "What about _you_? What happens if you get hurt?"

InuYasha let out a low growl as his faux adrenaline began to rush. "_I'm _not the important one, _bitch_! _You _are! You're the one who has the _real _body out there in the _real _world, and you're the one who'll get in real trouble when whatever TaishoCorp's going to do to us happens, okay? I am _nothing_. I'm a few little numbers and letters in a computer who pretends he's something more, okay? I'm just a pathetic excuse for a pretend person."

Kagome shook her head, horrified. "That's not true. Don't say that about yourself…"

"_Me _say that?" InuYasha demanded, suddenly angry as hell. "Kagome, _you _said that! You were the one who told me that you were the important one here. You were the one who told me that you were the one in real danger, and _you _were the one who called me fake. Those are _your _words, Kagome. Every fuckin' one of 'em."

He regretted the second he calmed down and looked at the girl's face. It looked like she had just been slapped, hard. Like a flower wilting in the summer heat, her angry face crumpled. She double forward, shoulders heaving, tousled hair obscuring her face.

InuYasha could have killed himself. Was he a total Jackass?

"Kagome…" he grunted, "I didn't…"

"Did I really say that?" Kagome's voice was soft and broken. "I really said stuff like that?"

Despite the phrase _I'm a bastard_ running through his mind on continuous loop, InuYasha wasn't gonna lie. "Yeah…"

The girl's shoulders heaved again, this time with an audible sob. "B-but, I didn't…"

"Don't worry about it," he said gruffly, crossing his arms. "I was just being stupid."

"I will worry about it!" Kagome insisted, looking up. "You're _not _just some stupid thing, okay? And when I said that I was just being stupid…"

InuYasha, despite his confusion, felt a smile cross his lips. "You actually mean you're not stupid sometimes?"

Kagome giggled just a little at that, a pathetic little sound that was more of a choke than a laugh. "I dunno anymore. I _feel _stupid, you know…"

InuYasha shook his head again, "Don't worry about it," he growled.

"I must look really bad right now," she hiccupped, sniffing back tears. "Haven't slept since you left, you know."

InuYasha scoffed. "Me neither. Tired as hell."

Kagome nodded, then slumped forward in her chair, knocking her keyboard aside as she did so. "I skipped school today…" she murmured sleepily. "And my morning shower."

"I noticed," the hanyou muttered back. "You look like shit,"

"Gee, thanks." She lightly hit the side of the monitor, rocking InuYasha's vision gently. "If I had known you were coming back, I would have gone ahead and taken one, so you couldn't peak on me."

"I already told you, you look like shit. Wouldn't wanna peak on you anyway."

No response but a soft chuckle, and a deep breath. She was asleep, almost.

He was near entering sleep mode too, before she spoke again.

"I didn't even think about it, you know."

"Hmm?"

"About those things I said. I was pretty stupid."

"Just a little," he agreed.

"It's not true, you know."

"What?"

"Just look at me, InuYasha. I stayed up all night waiting for you… I wouldn't even do that for most normal people. There's something more to you. I know there is."

"Maybe…"

"No maybes. Just yes."

"Yes ma'am."

"Now sleep."

"Okay…"

"…"

"Thanks, Kagome…"


	15. Changing colors

Woot!

I am quite happy with this.

Another chapter, and one with some serious plot advancement.

We're back to Rin and Sesshoumaru here.

Just some quick notes, on account that I'm very tired:

Nephew is doing well: he's off the respirator, and going in for some eye surgery. Thanks for all the prayers, and keep them coming.

Miroku and Sango are going to be coming to play more prominent roles shortly, but I don't think that it's gonna be until one chapter from here.

Anywho, here it is.

Me very tired.

Typing skillz very little

Sleeeeeep…

* * *

_Study hall_, Rin reflected as she stretched out on the cool concrete barriers that traced up wither side of the stairs leading to her school, _are wonderful inventions_.

Languorously, she threw her body out to its full length, willing her fingers and toes to stretch as far as they could to absorb the most sunlight possible. Life was very decidedly good.

"Excuse me, miss," the voice was businesslike, but patient nonetheless. Rin opened one mildly curious eye. It was one of the security guards. There were a lot patrolling her school nowadays.

"Yeah?" she mumbled sleepily by way of response.

"Miss, I'm afraid students are not allowed outside the school unattended."

Rin smiled. Behind her, she knew, Sesshoumaru was already drawing out from the shadows in the corner of the school building. The sudden uncertainty on the guard's face said it all.

"Is there a problem?" he calm voice whispered, deafeningly clear for all its softness.

The man's eyebrows shot up, and he took an involuntary step back. Sesshoumaru had that effect on people. "I'm sorry, Mr. _Sesshoumaru_. I didn't know you were with her."

"I am always with her," he remarked, leaning once again back against the corner, arms crossed. "Your protection of her is unnecessary."

The guard rolled his eyes, no doubt wishing the weirdo would just go to hell so he could do his job right, but instead he simply smiled. "Certainly," he replied stiffly, and turned, heading through the new security-tight anti-terrorist security doors to the school. Funny how you could almost always get right through those doors by only following the simple instructions of 'push' or 'pull' on the handles.

As the annoyance faded, Rin turned her full attention once again to the sun, enjoying the feeling as its fingers tickled up and down her body. Study halls _were _wonderful. They were _now_, anyway. She had never gotten any time to lie in the sun before.

It was amazing what an assassination attempt could do to you.

It was even more amazing, however, to note what the finding of a mutilated body in a school parking lot could do for said school. Rin had finally managed to achieve what she had always wanted: anonymity. In the aftermath of that incident two and a half weeks ago, Rin had by and large been forgotten.

Attendance had dropped. No parents wanted their children attending a school where an international assassin on the wanted lists of more than three world powers had turned up a bloody mess. Rin's graduating class had gone from three hundred to two hundred in a matter of days, and was still dwindling slowly. Her classmates had lost that barely contained hormonal energy that had made them so dangerous before.

Or maybe not. Maybe it was Rin who had changed. After all, someone threatening to send her crying home to her mommy seemed pretty mellow after having a knife waved in her face by a professional killer.

And the most pathetic thing was that that was the most there had been. Half hearted angry threats, the occasional nasty glare across the lunchroom, a _spit wad _in her hair during history. It was like they had all regressed to third grader tactics. Someone had actually tripped her in the hall the other day. And that was the _only _physical brutality she had bet with these past few days.

Suddenly, she had ceased being the _chink bitch_. It would have scared her, if she hadn't been enjoying it so much.

"Rin." Sesshoumaru's voice was calm but stern. "The period is almost over. If you wish to sketch, I would suggest you hurry and do so…"

Rin sighed. "I guess…" she mumbled, leaning forward and grabbing up a sketchbook. It was a nice new one, with paper that was simply beautiful. Not one of those crap ones she had gotten before. She had already done a few pieces: a bird she had seen the first time she had come out here, two weeks ago. A picture of Shippo, comically trying to hobble on his crutches. The boy was so short that they had to custom make them for him. But this last one…

She _liked _this last one.

She flipped open the book, and whipped the pencil out from behind her ear, smiling happily. Sesshoumaru was facing slightly away from her, so it should be safe… She narrowed her eyes, and her tongue snuck out from between her teeth.

His face was weird… she had never seen anything more royal. It was the arch of his nose, she had decided. It was smooth and elegant, but strong too. Or maybe his jaw… fine as any woman's, but set hard and masculine into his face. The cheekbones perhaps? High and pretty? Or was it…

The eyes… yes, it was the eyes.

They gleamed in inhuman, iridescent gold, barely contained wildness and strength held in check with a will like steel and the pride of a whole pack of lions.

Eyes that made you want to drop to his feet and bow like the lowly little worm you were.

Eyes that ruled.

She looked down at her sketch, and the multiple eraser marks across the center of his face. What was it about his eyes that she couldn't capture? She had _never _had this much trouble with a sketch before.

She inspected it with a critical eye, and tried again. The pencil scraped fluidly across the paper, etching lines into the worn fibers. This try was looking good. Maybe this would be the one?

No. No, no, no, no, no.

They were too long now. They looked almost _sultry. _Sesshoumaru was _not _sultry.

With not even the slightest hint or warning, the android turned to her. With a little gasp, she snapped the sketchbook shut. She didn't want him to see it till she was done…

"The bell has rung," he informed her, stepping up to the same level as her. "We should go…"

The girl rolled her eyes, and crammed the book back into her bag. "Guess so," she whined. Her and Sesshoumaru slipped back through the heavy doors, under the security cameras, et cetera, et cetera, and finally entered the unsafe part of the school: the hallways.

They had changed a lot. The normally noisy, roaring halls that Rin was used to had disappeared into a smaller din, whispered conversations on either side of the hall echoing softly off the halls.

Rin walked ever so slightly ahead of Sesshoumaru, the titan looming over her to ward off any would-be attackers. Nobody tried anything, thank the lord, but she did get a few nasty glares. She dropped her gaze at them, avoiding eye contact. Even if things had changed, years of conditioning were hard to break, and besides, what did _they _care if she met their gaze. They wouldn't give a damn anyway.

"You have your homework?" Sesshoumaru posed as they neared their destination.

Rin nodded, feeling in her backpack for it. Somehow, the teachers had changed too, though; she doubted it had anything to do with the assassin. She couldn't help but notice the looks Sesshoumaru got from the faculty: fearful, pale, subservient. And Mr. Campowski had a new desk. There had been rumors that his old one had been clawed in half.

The girl smiled slightly in spite of herself, rubbing her hands together. Sesshoumaru _rocked_. Hardcore.

Class went fairly well. A few nasty notes, that was it. There _had _been the little incident when Campowski had been about to rip up her homework for being "done improperly."

Sesshoumaru (who had taken to waiting for her elsewhere when she went to class) had stepping into the room, and asked to borrow a piece of chalk. Campowski smiled, and nodded, and casually put her paper on the pile with the rest, mumbling something about how he would accept it this time, but she had better clean up her act.

Rin tried to wink at her guardian angel, but if he saw, he gave no indication.

Lunch was nice too. With all the people leaving school, the lunchroom was vastly under crowded. Rin had a nice new table, one that didn't wobble, right near the salad bar. She was even going up for seconds, occasionally. If she was _really _hungry.

It was really nice, actually, not having to worry about weather people were sneaking up to lynch you or anything. She could now devote most of her time to something that she considered more important: Shippo.

The poor kid was wasn't near as enthused about the recent developments as she was. He was convinced that any day things were just going to go back to their normal shitiness. Granted, he was probably right, but that didn't mean that you couldn't enjoy it while it lasted. Rin would have expected that him, of all people, would have been happy with all this.

But maybe that wasn't what was bothering him. He was sick with a cold or the flu or _something_, so maybe that was what was bothering him. It was hard to enjoy yourself while you were coughing up internal organs every two seconds. Add that to his still-broken leg, and it would be enough to make anyone unhappy.

That was probably it.

Just a bunch of bad circumstances. That was it. No wonder the boy was down.

She should try and do something to cheer him up.

"Hey," she mumbled across the table, grabbing up a napkin and carefully removing some salad dressing from face. "You got study hall last period, right?"

The boy looked at her, eyes wide, and nodded timidly.

She fixed him with a big grin. "Let's go someplace, eh?" She rapped her knuckles against Sesshoumaru's shoulder. "Fluffy here can take us anywhere we want to go."

Sesshoumaru's eyes went very flat, and his lips tightened just a little. Rin _knew _she probably shouldn't call him by that name. He had saved her life after all. But _goddamn_, it was so easy. It would be easier to resist if that wasn't the _only _name he reacted to, _ever_. Besides his real one, anyway. Rin had tried a million different nicknames, from the humorous to the downright crude, but the _only _one that seemed to fit was Fluffy. And so, Fluffy it was. Besides, Sesshoumaru just sounded goofy if you had to say it too often.

Wait… Shippo had just said something, and she had completely ignored it. Damn her and her overactive thought life. She cocked her head, turning an ear towards the sophomore, a silent request for him to repeat the statement.

"Where would we go?" he asked again.

Rin shrugged. "I dunno," she mused. "We could go to the mall, or one of the museums?"

A light pressure on her shoulder: Sesshoumaru's hand. "I am unavailable."

Rin cocked an eyebrow, and shrugged. "Well, never-mind, then," she muttered. "What about after school? We could-"

"I'm busy, too," Shippo muttered, stirring macaroni around on his plate. "I've got stuff I gotta do after school."

Okay, scratch the hanging after school plan. Oh, well. She'd just head home then. Do some drawing. "Alright, then," the girl shrugged as she gathered up her stuff. "Then I'll see you tomorrow."

She stood and nodded goodbye to Shippo. He waved back, and, satisfied that her duties as a friend had been fulfilled, scuttled away from the lunchroom, guardian trailing not far behind.

"So," she poked at him as soon as they were out of the door. "What's this _business _you have to attend to, eh?"

Sesshoumaru didn't look at her as he spoke. "I am to report to your father's lab as of 2:00 PM today, for a diagnostic and data collection."

One of Rin's eyebrows perked up at him. "So… like a visit to the doctor's office, only for people like you?"

"Something of the sort," Sesshoumaru responded, still no expression.

Rin patted his back. "Well, good luck with that, eh?" she cheered. "I, however, have to get to gym class, and after that, you have to go, so I'll see you later, huh?"

"This would seem accurate."

"Okay, then. See ya…" She paused for just a moment. "Oh, and I'll come by the lab to pick you up after school, so you can take me home."

Which, of course, didn't make much sense. The school was closer to her house than it was to the lab, so she _should _just go to the house and just wait for him. But, then she wouldn't get the chance to walk with Sesshoumaru. She adored the way Sesshoumaru walked. Walked wasn't even the right word for it. 'Walking' _demeaned_ what Sesshoumaru did.

Sesshoumaru walked like his eyes looked.

Rin would need to watch him carefully, to be able to catch that grace on paper.

Sesshoumaru glanced at her, nodding. He seemed to pause for just a moment, before giving her a smile. Well, a Sesshoumaru-Smile, anyway. "That seems wise," he remarked. "I will look forward to our reunion."

Smiling happily, Rin spun, and waltzed off towards gym class.

Softball, of course, was the sport of the day. Nobody attempted to play dodge-ball with her head as the target, so she could count the period as an overall success. She did, however, manage to get one serious mother of a side cramp.

The study hall next period set her to wandering the school aimlessly, trying to keep out of trouble. After all, Rin didn't like borrowing anymore problems than she already had.

Which was exactly why she was just going to walk away when the boy tripped her in the hall. It was a simple enough little thing. They passed each other, he stuck his foot out, she was careless, and took a spill. She managed to break her fall with her forearms before any real damage managed to smush her nose against the hard tiles. There was a nasty little snicker as the boy continued down the hall, but one she could easily ignore. She started gathering herself to her feet, when suddenly she froze.

"Why don't you leave her alone for a while, ya stupid jerk!"

_Oh, God. Noooooooo. _

She slowly turned, and let out a shuddering breath. _Damn…_

Shippo, tiny frame squared to make himself look as big as possible, had interposed himself between the boy and Rin. Slowly, the boy turned back, and walked up to Shippo, grinning just a little. He wasn't particularly big, but compared to Shippo's diminutive form, he was an ogre. "Excuse me?"

Shippo, blazing with childish determination, scrunched his face up and attempted feebly to look fierce. "You heard me! Leave her alone!"

"Shippo," Rin growled, getting to her feet. "Get out of the way."

"No!" he yelled back, still facing the boy, trying to get in a position to defend himself while still balancing on his crutches. It wasn't working very well.

"What are you gonna do, limp on him?" the girl demanded, striding up. "Get out or the way, or-"

It was at this moment, though, that the boy Rin apparently needed 'defending' from struck again. He took the lowest possible blow one could take against a handicapped person: he kicked the crutch supporting Shippo's broken leg out form under him.

Shippo gasped as he toppled, first trying to support himself on his heavy orange cast, and then falling further over with a scream of pain as that did nothing to save him. His arms thrashed wildly as he fell, both crutches clattering on the floor, before he pitched himself, completely overbalanced. He hit the floor hard, with a meaty smack.

Rin winced despite herself, and shot the boy a glance that could kill. He didn't seem overly frightened. She leaned down next to Shippo. "I warned you, you know. Don't pick on people bigger than you."

The bigger boy, satisfied that his work was done, once again turned to walk down the hall. Rin did nothing to stop him.

"You don't have to defend me, you know," Rin muttered conversationally, leaning up against the wall. "I _can _defend myself. I just don't think its worth it, okay?"

No response. Shippo was very, very still.

Rin blinked, lips pursing. "Hey, you aren't crying are you?"

Still nothing.

She girl rolled her eyes. "Dammit, Shippo, _that's _why I keep telling you to be careful. If you pick fights with everyone who gets you down, then you're gonna end up hurt really bad."

Still nothing.

"Hey, do you need some help up?" she asked finally, kicking off the wall and leaning down. "Here, I'll get your crutches for you…" her voice dwindled off.

There, where Shippo's forehead had connected with the ground, was a pool or sticky, wet red. She swallowed hard, and pawed at his shoulder. He didn't move. The pool got wider. "Shippo?" she quavered, biting her lip.

Carefully, she turned him over, breath coming in shorter and shorter gasps. The boy's eyes were open, but bizarrely out of focus, one pupil dilated strangely wide and the other constricted to a near pinpoint. Oh, god, that was a sign of brain damage…

"Shippo?" she demanded again, more frantically this time. The blood was oozing across his face now. Lots of it. She knew head wounds were supposed to bleed, but this… this was something else. She shook him lightly.

"Shippo?" Her voice was taking on a hysterical edge. "C'mon, say something…"

He was like a broken marionette in her arms, strings all cut.  
_Fuck!_ He needed medical attention _now_. Where could she go… call, call 911! No, it would take them too long.

The security guards! There were all over the school. They would know what to do! She lifted his head again, biting her lip. He was breathing, barely. They were shallow and ragged.

Shit…

* * *

Hospitals. Rin had never really liked hospitals. Once, when she was five, before she had come to America to live, she had been forced to stay at one for entire weeks on end. Her parents—her _real_ parents—had both been children near Hiroshima.

The leftover shit from the bomb had done something to 'em. They had been sick all her life, up to that point.

They spent time in lots of hospitals, skipping from sterile white room to sterile white room in an effort to find a cure.

The cure hadn't been found. And after that, Rin had come here, to America, to live. She had been part of some sort of _adoption cultural diversification exchange_. Like the flowery words changed the fact that they were taking babies from their homeland.

In America, she had found that hospitals were the same the world over. She had been in them several times: Shippo wasn't the only one who had had bones broken in school.

Everything about them: the white walls, the clinical, tasteless art, the happy elevator music playing over the speakers… None of it could cover the sickness and death in the air. You breathed it in with every breath. It clogged your lungs and stuck to your throat, getting thicker and thicker, until you were convinced that you were going to die too.

Rin _hated _hospitals.

She sat quietly in the ER waiting room, not bothering to look at the culture magazines. Somehow, reading about fifty tips to tease and titillate your man didn't seem reverent enough.

Somehow, it was even more serious than she had thought. Unrealistically serious. The sort of thing that would only happen on the medical T.V. shows, but it was happening. Really happening.

They had tried to call Shippo's parents, but weren't able to get in touch with them. They had gone to his formal street address, only to find that it was no more than a beaten up warehouse. Nobody was living there. There were no guardians to be seen.

The second part had come out with the medical team, and the results were conclusive. Words like _severe deficiency _and _malnutrition _kept on popping up amongst the diagnostics, but Rin's ears only need ring with the final diagnostic.

Shippo was homeless. A street waif. Had been for almost a year, was what people were saying now. Any money he got went towards school, not food or clothes. The only time he was able to even come close to eating right was lunch at school, and that certainly wasn't anything to look forward to. It was no wonder, to the doctors, that he was so small. He had been starved since childhood. His bones were so fragile that it was a wonder he didn't kill himself with the initial fall.

The doctors, were, as usual, doing everything they could. Doctors were _always _doing everything they could. All Rin could do was sit. And wait. And try not to cry.

The stupid, stupid moron.

Rin had warned him, hadn't she? She had told him to back off. It hadn't been his fight. She would have been _fine _on her own.

So why did the stupid idiot have to go and hurt himself like that. She had tried to stop him…

She wanted to go home. No, no she didn't. She wanted to go to the lab. Sesshoumaru was there. He was there, and she could talk to him, and then he would look at her in that weird, emotionless way he had that was so comforting, and inform her that against _everything _she was telling herself, that this wasn't her fault.

It _wasn't _her fault, was it?

Was it?

_She knew that that boy was going to trip her_.

_She could have dodged. She could have done _something

_She could have fought her own battle, so he wouldn't have had to fight it for her. _

_When people fought in wars she should have been waging, they were the ones to get hurt. _

The door to the operating room clicked open, and one of the nurses stepped out, face somber.

Rin bit her lip as the nurse stepped over to her, smiling. "Miss Onigumo?" the nurse asked in a nice 'talking to children' voice.

"Is he okay?" Simple, straightforward question. Sesshoumaru must have been rubbing off on her.

The nurse was slightly taken aback by the bluntness. "We don't know," she said after a while. Rin didn't envy her job. How many grieving families a week did she have to console? "He hasn't woken up yet, and there's signs that he might have some internal hemorrhaging in his brain."

Rin had paid attention in health classes. She _knew _what bleeding in the brain meant. "What are his chances?"

A shrug. "The doctors thing he'll live," she confessed. "But the side effects are what you should be worrying about."

"Such as?"

"Mental problems, Retardation. He might end up on life support for the rest of his life."

Rin bit her lip, and nodded.

The nurse paused a moment before sitting down next to her. "Were you a close friend of his?"

She nodded, shrugging. "Close as he had."

The nurse patted her shoulder sympathetically. "It's always hard to see-"

"And I don't need your little sympathy talk."

The nurse looked at her, and shook her head. "A girl like you shouldn't have to go through-"

"I've gone through it before, lady," Rin cut her off, standing up suddenly. "Take care of him for me."

She stalked out of the waiting room, out of the hospital, and out of the hospital grounds. She found a bus stop, and plopped down on the side of the road, shoulders hunched forward. It was a nice night, warm, and the stars were out bright enough to be slightly visible against the lights of the city, but it was lost on her.

The bus came after a wait that could have been forever, and she got on for another seemingly eternal ride to her dad's office.

The outside of the lab was, like the inside, cold and nasty. She loathed this place more than the hospital. The hospital reeked of death. This place didn't have any life in it to begin with.

She pushed the heavy doors inward into the white waiting room where the secretary sat, eternally working on her nails. Why did Dad even _need _a secretary? Couldn't he make a robot to do the filing?

The woman looked up as Rin burst in. "You're late, you know," she remarked. "Dr. Onigumo was expecting you a while ago, you know."

Rin gave the woman, Kagura or some other stupid name, a grimace that would have made a blind person run away. "I've been _busy_," she hissed.

Kagura shrugged. "That's fine. Just hurry on in."

That was _it_? Hurry on in? Rin had been inside dad's lab, like, _once_. She was just supposed to waltz in and find where she was supposed to go? She glanced to Kagura, but got no such advice.

Resisting the incredibly enticing temptation to swear her lungs out at her, and pressed right past the office and into the metal hallway beyond.

She stalked through the hall, glaring in the windows left and right with angry, furrowed eyes. Even through her undeniably foul temper, she couldn't help but notice the bizarre things happening in the rooms. Machines were working. Well, that was no surprise; this was a factory as well as a lab. But what they were making chilled Rin straight through.

Tall figures hung naked on wires in various stages of completion: some simple torsos, others with all their limbs, and others still complete. They looked _disturbingly _like Sesshoumaru. Only, not. They had been altered, each one slightly different, but close enough to the original that she could see the resemblance. All traces of his unique traits had been completely erased. His face markings: the stripes and the crescent moon on his forehead were gone. The downy silver hair had been transmuted into varying shades and lengths of brown and black, with an occasional blonde thrown in with the mix.

But then, there was another detail that Rin couldn't help but notice with a blush. If they were military robots, _why _did they have to make them anatomically correct? Honestly, it just didn't seem practical.

…

Was Sesshoumaru made that way too?

Dammit, this wasn't the time for that sort of thing! She had to find…

She glanced to the right, and saw what she had to find. In the room to her left was Sesshoumaru. He was sitting placidly in a plain chair, facing her father. As usual, Naraku was holding a notebook, scribbling frantically.

She scowled, and pushed the door inward. Both heads in the room turned towards her, eyes narrowing slightly. Had she interrupted something?

Sesshoumaru was the first to return his gaze to the one across from him, but Naraku was the first to speak. "Rin, I was expecting you earlier…"

"Something came up," she growled, shutting the door with a sharp click that showed her anger much better than any slam ever could, and leaned against the wall.

Naraku, either unfazed or oblivious to her mood, gave her patient smile, and adjusted his near-opaque circle glasses. "Well, that's alright, then," he muttered, and turned back to his subject. "Prototype Nine's analysis is completed, so we will be finished here shortly."

_Prototype Nine?_ Oh, right… Sesshoumaru. She had forgotten he even had a number. "Okay…" she mumbled.

"I have to say, Rin, you have shown incredible patience in this field test. You seem to have held up very well."

She shrugged.

He nodded at her, and turned back to Sesshoumaru, tapping his pen on the rim of the notebook. "Well, then, we shall simply bring you down to the central lab for processing, hmmm?"

"Processing?" The word was out of Rin's mouth, unbidden, before she could stop it. What the hell did _processing _mean? It had a nasty, nasty feel to it.

"He means that I am to be decommissioned," Sesshoumaru explained, rising from his seat.

"Decommissioned?" Rin echoed, eyes widening. Did that mean what she thought it meant?

"Of course, Rin," Naraku mused, standing himself, and smoothing his lab coat. "Prototype Nine was, in fact, just that. A prototype. All the tests on it are over, and it has fulfilled its purpose."

"So…" Rin was trying to keep the waver out of her voice. "What's going to happen to him?"

"If possible, we will convert him to one of the new models, but there is always the option of scrapping him."

_Scrapping? _

She cast a desperate glance over to Sesshoumaru, and gaped at him.

The machine didn't meet her gaze. He stood, and carefully walked towards the door, following Rin's father obediently.

Numbly, too shocked to say anything against the proceedings, followed. They trudged through the lab, Naraku cheerfully leading them, like some screwed up funeral march.

Down a flight of clanging stairs, and finally into a titanic steel room filled with wicked looking machinery. Looking up, Rin could see a control booth built into the ceiling, like an audience box above a freakishly cruel amphitheater. Naraku paused, and smiled at Sesshoumaru. "You will wait here while I prepare, understood?"

Sesshoumaru looked at him with cool eyes. "I have but one question before hand."

Naraku scowled for a second, and crossed his arms. "I fail to see how a question would be pertinent right now."

"Are you aware, Dr. Onigumo, that it is common practice amongst assassins to carry contract papers with them when they go out on a job?"

Rin stiffened. She hadn't told dad anything about the assassination. Surely Sesshoumaru hadn't either…

Naraku stiffened as well, and crossed his arms. "I fail to see how that is pertinent."

"It is a safety precaution, I believe," Sesshoumaru continued, apparently oblivious to the scientist's protests. "If they are killed on the job, then the contractor who hired them will be exposed."

_What?_

Rin glared at Sesshoumaru. Did he _know _who had tried to have her killed?

"What are you getting at, Number Nine?" Naraku asked, the normal preoccupation that permeated his voice now strangely vacant. Rin didn't believe she had _ever _heard her dad say anything when he wasn't thinking of ten other things at the same time. His voice was always airy and rambling.

And suddenly those qualities were gone, leaving just the natural voice. It emotionless and calculating. As if all the intellect in the world was being bent to find how to cause _you _misery. Rin suddenly found herself frightened.

Sesshoumaru slowly began circling the scientist, moving until he had interposed himself between the man and Rin. "Dr. Onigumo, when you end my existence, will you once again attempt to kill your daughter?"

Rin blinked. That was the only external reaction. No sudden intake of breath or gasping accusation. Just a blink…

The words, it seemed, were having trouble working their way from her ears to the back of her head for processing. She had _heard _them, certainly, and understood each words individual meaning, but the adding them up together part just wasn't happening.

She slowly worked through it:

Kill… it was a verb. Yeah, she knew what that one meant.

Your… simple indication of possession, referring to dad, in this case.

Daughter… yeah… she knew that one too…

Kill + your + daughter…

Damn…

It never really occurred to her to doubt Sesshoumaru. If he said it, it was truth.

She bit her lip, and stole a hurt glance around Sesshoumaru's broad shoulders. Dad—no, _Naraku_—had a smooth smile on his face, eyes hidden behind those glasses. He looked sinister. He slowly raised his gaze to Sesshoumaru, and shook his head. "It really is a pity you had to go and say that…" he chuckled. "I was rather hoping to keep her around for other tests I might need doing. She's _very _convenient for that, you know. But unfortunately, I won't be able to let her leave now."

Rin felt her insides churn at the low laugh that oozed from Naraku's mouth after that.

"It's ironic, isn't it?" the good doctor smirked. "You, who are charged with her protection, ask the question that leads to her death, hmm? Yes, very ironic indeed." He fixed her with a gaze. His smile was that of detached forlornness, like someone looking at an expensive, broken toaster. "I spent quite a bit of money raising her as an ideal test subject, you know. Her parents were dead. That was important, you know. Biological parents have the bad habit of wondering how their daughter is doing. Better they be gone for good. I had to shell out quite a bit of cash just to get her over here too. Customs agents to bribe. U.S. officials too, for her citizenship."

Each word was a little stab in her heart. Sure, he had never been that loving… but he had been there since she was five. She could barely remember anything before then, save the cold walls of the hospital and a few glimpses of her parents, smiling despite their extensive treatments…

"But then, I thought," Naraku continued, lost in his own genius, "what would happen if I decided to use her for something, and she was rendered unusable? Yes, I would need to dispose of her, wouldn't I? But that could lead to all sorts of embarrassing questions. So I started on what I consider one of my greatest works."

What was he talking about now? Rin had a sickening feeling of where this was going.

"It certainly took some doing, to find the perfect combination of students and teachers, but I feel I managed with amazing skill. Paying tuition for a boy or a girl here, and hiring the appropriate staff. It was difficult, I must admit, but I was able to do it. Those I found who didn't already have natural prejudice were easy enough to pay off. Amazing, isn't it, what atrocities people will do for money?" He chuckled. "It cost a lot of money, but it worked. When she doesn't show up to school tomorrow, they won't question it. They probably won't even notice…"

_Oh god…_He had set it up. _All _of it! The school, the teachers, the low grades… _Everything_. All those days running from the sports teams, sneaking out of windows, broken bones… it was all _him_.

She was dimly aware of roaring in her ears, and sudden pressure across the front of her torso, but she didn't care. She pressed forward, against the resistance, first twisted into claws, trying to reach the fucking bastard.

"Peace, Rin," she head Sesshoumaru whisper in her ear, and suddenly it was so. The roaring vanished, her vision cleared, and all energy left her body. She collapsed to her knees next to him, shuddering violently.

Naraku, hands still locked in the pockets of his coat, only smiled. "So, I have answered your question, number nine. It is time for you to be decommissioned now."

Sesshoumaru smiled back, in his own subtle way, and shook his head. "I'm afraid that is impossible."

Naraku shook his head, and one hand came up to rub at his temples. "Of course, I have yet to release you of your protocol to protect my little test subject. Silly of me." He glanced back up at Sesshoumaru. "Prototype Nine, the preservation of the health of one: Rin Onigumo is no longer on your list of priorities."

Sesshoumaru shook his head. "I am unable to comply with that request."

Naraku's smile faded to a scowl. "I was rather afraid of that," he confided. "We thought there were signs of rebellion in your code. However, we have successfully managed to root out all such things."

There was a sudden whirring sound, and a heavy clang as something dropped between Sesshoumaru and Naraku. Slowly, it stood up, and straightened itself.

It was exactly what Rin had seen being made in the rooms upstairs, only in full completion. It was a brown haired, green eyed unit. Tall, with lanky arms and legs, the thing was dressed in a simple army camouflage uniform.

"Prototype Nine, I would like you to meet unit 0001," Naraku cackled from behind the figure. "Featuring enhanced strength, speed, and power, and it is completely obedient."

Sesshoumaru's head slowly cocked to the side by maybe an inch. "It is but a mongrel," he judged.

Rin was forced to agree. The thing didn't look human. It didn't even look sentient, as Sesshoumaru did. It looked like some sort of stray dog thrust into a human shape: no thoughts save how to get its next meal.

Naraku snorted derisively, and waved a hand. "0001, dispose of them."

The thing was slow to respond, but when it did it moved like lightning, seeming to warp and bend around Sesshoumaru before again taking solid form and sending a powerful leg crashing into his collar bone.

There was a sickening wrenching sound, and the floor under Sesshoumaru's feet bowled down. The machine himself, though, didn't even flinch.

The soulless doll dropped to the floor, and scuttled back, taking stock of the situation. No doubt taking down the prototype would take much more force than it had previously thought.

With a derisive sigh, Sesshoumaru stepped out of the hole, and up again onto the floor. "Pathetic," he murmured.

Rin's eyes widened, and her mouth fell open stupidly. If Sesshoumaru had acted like royalty before, he stood like a god now, taller than she had ever seen him, intricate garb gathered around himself. Even the boa, normally so ridiculous somehow transformed into a wreath of majesty.

"To think," he intoned, lifting a claw as he did it and cracking all the knuckles in it with a fluid motion. "To think that one such as you would attempt to destroy this Sesshoumaru with one such mongrel. The notion is laughable."

With a sudden lash, the new model charged again, arms caught in an almost cliché martial arts pose. The thing went into strike, fingers honing in towards Sesshoumaru's eyes.

Rin didn't see her guardian move any more than a slight flick of his arm. She did see, though, the mildly surprised expression on the fake-Sesshoumaru's face as its arm fell off, severed as cleanly as if someone had taken a blow torch to it. She had a brief vision of charred pseudo-flesh and glowing hot metal before the thing whipped away, circling around Sesshoumaru like a wild animal.

The thing leapt, and descended towards Sesshoumaru like a diving eagle.

The guardian lifted a glowing hand, and thrust two fingers towards the mongrel. Like a beam from heaven, a lance of light shot from his claws and hit the thing's chest. It crumpled in mid air, arm and legs folding around itself as it fell. It continued its downward arc until the thing impaled itself on the androids lethal claws.

Sesshoumaru, not slowing the thing's momentum at all, sidestepped and swung it back up, sending the now ragged beast careening towards the control booth embedded in the ceiling of the room.

It crashed with stunning impact: the cool darkened glass shattering outward around the body while the metal frame bent savagely inward. There were some cruel wrenching sounds that made goosebumps break out all up and down Rin's arms.

Naraku, backing up now, cast a glance up to the ruined control tower, then turned back to Sesshoumaru. "It seems I have managed to underestimate you, doesn't it?"

Sesshoumaru cracked his knuckles, and shrugged. "It would seem so,"

Naraku adjusted his glasses. "A mistake I would rectify in my next batch. Due to limited funds, I was forced to use cheaper materials that what I had used to make you, you see. I was counting on the more effective programming to make up for it, but there's always next time, when I have more money."

"I'm afraid you are mistaken…" Sesshoumaru murmured. "There will be no next time…"

One of Naraku's thin eyebrows raised until it was visible from behind the thick circles of his glasses. "You think to kill me, your creator now, do you?" he chuckled. "Don't bother trying to deceive me with those notions. I made you, number nine, and I know you better than you think. You cannot hurt your creator."

Sesshoumaru drew himself up again suddenly, and took a threatening step towards his 'creator.' "This Sesshoumaru is not bound to you, nor any other."

As if to drive this point home, his arm snuck out and fastened to Naraku's wrist.

The scientist scowled, and tried to break free, struggling feebly against the machine's vice-grip. "Prototype Nine, shut down immediately."

"You are a fool," Sesshoumaru told him, and tensed his grip.

Instantly, Naraku's face twisted from one of displeasure to that of sheer, intense pain. He crumpled to his knees, gasping violently, desperately trying to shake his arm free. Then the skin around Sesshoumaru's hand, already twisted from the terrible grip, started bubbling grotesquely, smoke rising from the gaps between the clawed fingers, as if it was burning metal that had such a hold on him, and not a simple machine.

Rin watched in horror as the skin on her father's arm melted, the stray patches that remained attached to the muscle and sinew turning chalky and black. Blood was boiling on Sesshoumaru's claws, congealing and bubbling sickly.

With a little twist and snap, Sesshoumaru severed the hand from the rest of the good doctors body, and tossed it aside.

Naraku collapsed, cradling his bloody and cauterized stump with his good hand. "How _dare _you?" he gasped, fury racking his voice. "You dare to strike out at your master?"

A hard hand latched around his throat, and lifted him off his feet. He suddenly found himself staring into sharp golden eyes far more cold than his own. "This Sesshoumaru is a servant to nobody."

With that, Sesshoumaru heaved, sending Naraku hurtling through the air on the same course the doctor's monster had taken mere minutes before, crashing him into the darkness of the crater that was left there.

For a few hanging moments, there was no sound save the tremulous whirring of machines. Then there was another sound, like a malfunctioning light. A soft _crackle crackle crackle _of electricity jumping through air.

And suddenly, for a spilt second, the air around them burned and flashed, offering a perfect view into that dark hole. Oh, God, Rin wished she hadn't looked.

Naraku was dead. There was no way he couldn't be. Oddly enough, that didn't disturb her. In some sick and twisted way, on a primal level she didn't even know existed, she was even satisfied. Amazing, wasn't it, how hard you could start to hate someone, so very quickly.

No, what frightened her was the sheer sight of it: skin charred and burnt, tattered lab coat flaming and stained with blood. _Everything _was stained with blood. There were wires. Countless little wires, all severed from the previous blow to the control box, were piercing his body, tearing his flesh sickeningly open, occasionally causing the body to jerk spasmodically from the current still running through it.

His head was twisted inhumanly to one side, a big central wire smoothly skewering through the back of his skill and piercing through his face.

A chunk of his arm flared up briefly, and fell to the floor with a meaty _smack_.

Rin doubled over, clutching her stomach, and threw up.

Sesshoumaru offered her no comfort, even as her insides turned inside out. Instead, he contented himself to inspect the surroundings, eyes narrowing as he did so.

Rin leaned back, attempting desperately not to think about anything too hard. Wiping her mouth on the back of her hand, she cast a glance up at her guardian. "Sesshoumaru?"

"You are unharmed?" the tall figure asked, not facing her.

"Sort of," Rin responded, but it sounded more like a question to her ears.

"I am glad," the machine answered, turning towards her. "We should leave this place."

Rin shivered, and glanced back up to the hole where her father lay. It was once again dark. "Yeah…"

"Go ahead, Rin," Sesshoumaru instructed carefully. "Get outside the building. I will meet you there."

Rin wasn't sure why he was telling her to go before him, but she was too tired to question. Unsteadily, she rose to her feet, and began making her slow, staggering way towards the door to the huge room.

"And Rin?"

"Yeah?"

Sesshoumaru stuck out a hand, and slowly, like a snake, a glowing rope that seemed to be made of flame and light slid from his front two fingers. Where it coiled on the ground, the metal beneath it glowed brilliantly, and began to melt. "The secretary is the only one left in the premises at this time. Inform her that it would be very wise to get out of this building very soon."

Rin's eyes widened, and hurried out of the room, moving with newfound purpose.

Sesshoumaru, left to his own devices, continued inspecting the room. The metal the room was made of would melt, but not burn. It was unsuitable.

But the machines in the room… they were much more convenient. Most likely, they were using a flammable lubricant, and had feeding tubes running through the plant to carry the stuff to them. He would simply…

With a flick of his wrist, the light whip lashed out, and snapped one of the large, mechanical arms into pieces. Much as he had thought, the trace amounts of liquid that remained in the machine instantly caught fire, roaring into satisfyingly hot flames.

Smiling lightly, he lashed out at all the remaining machines, each setting on fire as the stream of burning heat sliced through it. Already, Sesshoumaru could feel the floor under his feet beginning to warm as the fire traveled down the ducts, combusting and building pressure as it went. He smiled in satisfaction. The fire would spread now, taking the entire factory with it.

Good.

Carefully, he made his way out of the building. By the time he brushed through the heavy doors and came out to meet Rin, there were already flames licking out of some of the upper windows. It wouldn't last the night, no matter what fire-fighters would do.

The girl was standing in the middle of the streets, eyes wide, flames reflecting in her face.

He walked towards her. "You are unharmed?" he asked, for the second time that evening.

She slowly swallowed, and nodded. It was, of course, a lie. She had the signs of severe shock. Sesshoumaru supposed that was fairly natural. As near as he could tell, she had no clue as to her father's true nature.

And now… he must tell her more. "I am… sorry. That you had to go through that."

Rin sniffed, a sad little sound. "It was better than not knowing…" she said eventually. "What do you suppose will happen now?"

"I am unsure…" Sesshoumaru answered. He paused for a moment. Just a moment, before continuing. "Thing that have happened tonight make little sense to me."

Uncertainty apparently wasn't what Rin needed. He could see her face crumpling in the fading light. "But…"

"I am in need of answers, it seems," he mused. "And I know but one place to get them."

"So let's go there."

"You would go with me?" Sesshoumaru asked, no surprise in his voice. "It will be even more difficult, from now on."

"Yeah?"

"You could remain here. The authorities would find you, and you could start a new life. Whatever happens, it would be better than what you lived with now."

Rin looked more hurt than she had the entire day. "But…"

"I will not force you," he said, brushing past her. "But your life will only get harder by following me."

She was silent for just a moment, but he could hear it when she turned towards him. "Okay, then," she said finally.

"What will you do?"

Another long pause. "You win," she murmured. "Okay, fearless leader. Lead on, and I'll follow."

Sesshoumaru nodded slowly. He didn't try to keep the subtle smile from his face. "Then let us go, Rin," he commanded, and walked away from the burning building.

And she followed him into the night.


	16. Copies and Originals

Aiight, folks.

Really short chapter here, but I have to say I'm proud of it.

Anywho, have LOTS of work to do.

College starts tomorrow, and I'm posting this from my new dorm room (SHEN ROCKS!)

Going off on a two week camping trip before classes actually start, so I obviously wont be posting for at least two weeks.

Anywho, luv you guys bunches. Thanks for all the reviews. BYE BYE!

* * *

Taisho sat placidly, looking at his monitor. His fingers casually intertwined with each other in front of his face, just barely obstructing his view. His eyes were closed, and his face was placid.

He didn't need to see the monitor to know what it was telling him: Naraku's laboratory had been destroyed. It had burned to the ground the previous night.

The only survivors of the incident were one Kagura Summers, the laboratory's secretary, and one Rin Onigumo, the daughter of the head scientist, Dr. Naraku Onigumo, who is presumed dead in the fire.

Rin was nowhere to be found.

Taisho's eyes narrowed, and he let out a long, drawn out sigh. Problems, problems, and _more _problems.

Sesshoumaru, it seemed, was developing quite faster than Taisho himself had prepared for. That could prove… _hazardous _to his health.

Taisho winced, and rubbed at his neck. He could have to make a point to increase security precautions for the coming days.

He shrugged, and opened one drawer. Two beady red eyes stared weakly out of the darkness at him. "Are you feeling any better?"

"I feel like a shit that got run over by a 747, okay?" Kirara's voice answered him, trembling and miserably.

"I'm happy to hear that," Taisho muttered. "How long before you are operational?"

"Probably in a day or two… I hope."

"Well, I'm sorry to bother you, but as soon as you feel you can, I want to start watching the perimeter security lines, alright?"

"You mean the cameras and stuff like that? Why?"

"Let's just say that I'm expecting someone… _important_, and I'd like to know when they arrive."

"Any idea what they look like?" Kirara asked grumblingly.

"No, but I'm pretty sure you'll know when he comes."

"Could you be more specific?"

Taisho mused to himself for a moment. "He will look… _impressive_."

The red eyes rolled slightly. "Well _that_'s helpful," she muttered. "Consider it done. As soon as I wake up again. G'night."

Chuckling slightly, he slid the door shut, and returned his gaze to the screen. As if by magic, the information on the fire melted away, replaced once again by Kikyo's file.

It occurred to him that he had been watching it more and more recently. It was amazing how it had grown, too, in the past couple days. Since he had learned _InuYasha's _name.

It was quite amazing what he knew about her, _now_. He had even more data on her than he did on the young Kagome. He knew dental records, every grade she had gotten since kindergarten, who all she had dated…

_Especially _who all she had dated.

But still, there were some things he wasn't quite clear on. And no amount of data could tell him that. He needed to go strait to the horse's mouth.

And speaking of horses…

He looked up expectantly towards his door.

Listening carefully, he waited until the knuckles were _about _to rap on his door before saying loudly and clearly, "Come in, Miss Kikyo."

There was a long pause before the door opened, Kikyo stepping half heartedly into the office. Taisho loved shocking her like that. It was one of the few pleasures in his day.

"Please, sit down," he said softly, gesturing towards a chair in front of his desk. It wasn't the lush chair she was used to. It was hard and wooden. Like an interrogation chair.

Miss Kikyo must have sensed something in his tone, because she instantly tensed, and lost some of the confidence she now so casually wore in his presence. He smiled, almost nastily. She suddenly very much resembled the timid girl who had stumbled into his office a short month ago, quaking in his presence.

Quickly, Kikyo sat, pushing her hair back behind one ear. Her posture was perfect. Taisho had _never _met someone who had better posture, which was impressive, because Taisho had met some very annoying perfectionists in his time.

"Miss Kikyo," Taisho nearly purred, hand straying to a martini glass that sat on the corner of his desk. He picked it up, and swirled it gently. "Why do you think I called you in, today? Even though I had given you a brief vacation yesterday?"

Her gaze dropped just a little. "I don't know, sir." The tone was cold.

"And do you know why I gave you that vacation in the first place?"

The gaze dropped even low. She was now looking directly into her own lap. "I said things that I shouldn't have, sir. I'm sorry."

"Kikyo," Taisho pressed. "Look at me, and tell me your opinion of _me_."

The woman jerked slightly, looking up quite suddenly. "Sir, I-"

"What do you think of me?" Taisho's voice left no option but to answer.

Kikyo swallowed heavily, lips pursed suddenly. "I… think that you…" She cast an uncertain glance at Taisho. He gave her no help. She was clearly wondering what she was supposed to say to make him happy. "I think that you are… someone I wouldn't normally expect to be part of a software company."

"You think I am a fool," Taisho clarified for her.

The shock on her face, followed by the slightest blush told him he had hit the nail on the head. "That's not true, sir!" she denied.

Taisho gave her a hurt look. "Really?" he asked. "And I was trying so very hard to seem incompetent, too."

Kikyo started to respond, but no words made it. Her mouth simple hung stupidly.

"You should keep your lips closed," he remarked. "Or you might start catching bugs."

Instantly, he mouth snapped shut, and she crossed her arms. "What exactly are you saying, sir?"

"Running a company is dangerous work, Miss Kikyo," Taisho explained patiently, hands starting to twine on his desk. "Much more so, if you are successful. I find that if people simply think I am some sort of fool who got lucky, things go _much _easier on me."

Kikyo's face twisted curiously. "I'm afraid I still don't understand, sir."

"Think of it this way… If I was an assassin hired to destroy the single most important person at TaishoCorp, who would I go after?"

"Well, the head, of course…"

"_Unless_," Taisho countered. "Unless the idiot looks to be a total fool, and his grossly overpaid personal assistant seems to make all the real decisions." He fixed her with a cool, almost cold glance. "Tell me, my grossly overpaid personal assistant, if _you _were that assassin, who would _you _pick?"

Kikyo paled, and swallowed visibly. "I- I suppose the logical answer would be…"

She didn't need to finish, so Taisho held up a hand cutting her off. "And that, my friend, is why everyone who meets me is supposed to think I am a fool."

Kikyo cocked her head. "So, why are you telling me all this?" she demanded.

"Because I no longer wish for you to think I am a fool," Taisho stated, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "You see, I have made some discoveries about you that make you far too important to keep in the dark."

"Discoveries?"

"For instance,"—Taisho inspected his nails as he spoke—"did you know that our very own Project Hanyou was given a code name?"

Kikyo very suddenly stiffened.

"_InuYasha_..." Taisho rolled the name across his tongue, savoring it. "An interesting name, I think. Something I would expect from a member of a gang, or some such nonsense."

Kikyo started looking pale. Well, paler than normal.

"But the thing I simply can't figure out is that normally _I _give codenames to all our AI." He smiled at her. "And I distinctly remember the name I gave 'InuYasha' was definitely _not _'InuYasha.'" His smile widened, and his eyes narrowed.

His hand flexed in such a way that the knuckles cracked. One. By. One.

"How do you suppose my codename was overwritten and 'InuYasha' put in its place?"

Kikyo was trembling now, visibly. She seemed to know, almost by instinct, that she was in trouble. "I didn't mean to overwrite anything, sir…" she burbled, attempting to stay in control of her voice, but failing. "I thought the name was something one of the others had simply put in as a joke, so I replaced it with one of my own."

"And why, lady Kikyo, did you decide on 'InuYasha?' Surely such a rugged and immature name is unsuited to one such as yourself."

Taisho noted with interest, that at the word _immature_, Kikyo's fists clenched suddenly, a look of fury sweeping her face before she could control it. But it was gone in a flash.

"It is a name that has some… significance to me," she stated loftily.

"Really?"

"Yes." Kikyo's voice stated quite clearly that she wasn't saying anything else.

That was okay. Taisho already knew all the significance the name had.

"Kikyo," Taisho murmured, turning around in his chair. "Do you remember yesterday, when I told you that certain things work certain ways at TaishoCorp?"

"Yes, sir."

"Well, allow me to elaborate on one of our more interesting policies."

Kikyo didn't respond, so he simply pressed on. "I think that you should know that all the employees that work kin our AI division, as well as several who work in other divisions, don't actually do anything productive with their time."

"They _think _they do, certainly, but in actuality they could simply drink coffee and eat out of the lounge all day, and be just as happy as anything. This is because all the code they write every day is processed at night, saved, replaced to their computers, and systematically ignored."

"A shock yes, but a majority of the products that come out of TaishoCorp are never even touched by the employees hands. You see, there are only a few people who are responsible for the works of art that come from this place. And one of them, Miss Kikyo, is me."

Leisurely, he wheeled his chair around again, eyeing her reaction. Her face was surprisingly stoic, her eyes boring into him with something that hadn't been there before.

"You see, Miss Kikyo, I find that regular people lack the type of minds it takes to write truly complex code. And among the greatest of feats a programmer can accomplish is to create not simply an artificial intelligence, but to give that intelligence an artificial personality. To have the responses coded so perfectly that you begin to wonder if they are something out of an Asimov novel. But _normal _people lack the minds to be able to do anything that complex, so instead of letting them piddle their lives away trying, I give them a false sense of productivity and happiness, and then do all the true art myself."

"It is a system I've been working on for years, Miss Kikyo, and it all went very smoothly. But one day, about three years ago, we got a new employee."

He glanced at his monitor happily.

"One Kikyo Higashi sought employment at out facilities after being expelled for college." He glanced up, smiling. "Why were you expelled from college, Miss Kikyo?"

The woman gave him a look that might very well have been able to kill, grimacing nastily. With a hint of resentment, licked her lips. "I was kicked out for being suspected of gang activity, sir?"

"And were you in a gang, Miss Kikyo?"

"…No."

"Did you know people who were in a gang, Miss Kikyo?"

"…Yes."

"I see. Perhaps that is where you got your odd taste in… codenames."

She glared at him suddenly, eyebrows furrowing. "If you know everything about my past, then why don't you go ahead and spit it out!"

Taisho raised an eyebrow, and held up a hand. "In good time, Miss Kikyo," he murmured. "But first, I should continue my story…"

"Now, this young Kikyo begged to be able to work for us, wishing to be able to prove that she knew computers without having to be able to go to college. My people were planning on turning her away when I happened to catch her profile." He smiled. "I felt sorry for her, and the work she did wouldn't matter anyway, so I hired her, and put her to work on the Hanyou Project."

He chuckled suddenly. "Imagine my surprise when actually _saw _what she was doing? Why, the woman was a _genius_. I had only seen such finesse with things technical once before in my entire life. Obviously, with such raw talent on my hands, I couldn't simply throw away what she was doing. And so, she became the only employee _ever _to actually have a hand in creating one of our AIs."

Taisho leaned forward in his chair, towards her, smiling sweetly. "Makes you feel proud, doesn't it?"

She snorted in response, turning away from him. "I fail to see why you are telling me all this."

"It's simple, really, Miss Kikyo," Taisho shrugged. "I began to trust you too much, and after having a conversation with _InuYasha_, I realize that you might have made some… _changes _under my nose."

Kikyo blinked, all former anger forgotten, and looked over to him. "InuYasha is still alive?"

"Apparently," Taisho nodded. "He certainly seemed alive enough to me, anyway. He was not terribly happy."

Kikyo was suddenly breathless, leaning towards him. "Do you know where he is?"

Taisho's smile saddened, and he nodded. That response alone told him more than he needed to know. "Sit down, Miss Kikyo."

She obeyed, but still looked incredibly exited.

"As you said, Miss Kikyo, it seems I have your entire life on record here." He gestured towards the computer. "And I suppose, in retrospect, I should have seen it. Hanyou has an abrasive personality, to say the least. He is vulgar and uncouth. He is very definitely not someone you would have come up with on your own."

"So I had inspiration," Kikyo dismissed. "What of it?"

"That inspiration is my point, Miss Kikyo," Taisho hissed. "I know who inspired you, and I want to know what you've done."

"What I've done, Sir?" Kikyo posed, unsure of herself.

"The personality is based on him. The name is based on him. What _else _is based on him, Miss Kikyo?" Taisho demanded darkly. "Tell me every little way that _this _InuYasha resembles the _old _one!"


	17. Interactions

Woot! After what seems like forever (but was really only five weeks), I finally post another chapter.

Sorry, folks, but you know how the transition into college is. First there was the camping trip, and then all the classes, and the orientation, and all this other crap, and it took me forever to get over it all and get down to writing this.

Okay, this chapter is just a _little _on the boring side, but it really needs to happen so that all the coolness in the next to chapters can happen.

Anywho, I'm pretty entrenched in my schedule now, so it should be easier to find places to get some writing done, so hopefully I'll have a chapter for you within the week.

In other matters, I am looking for a volunteer or two to read some stuff for me.

I'm doing some original work (a piece called _Sight_) which I am hopefully going to be able to submit to a publisher on completion (and sever editing). My problem is that of motivation of proofreading. While I would love to post it online to get many comments, many publishers will not take a work that has already been published online, thus my problem. So, (I already have two close friends who I'm sure would be happy around where I live), but I'm also all about getting some criticism from you guys.

So, if you would like to have me E-mail you with the document, E-mail me. Once again, I'm only choosing two of you, so I'll go with the two people who e-mail me who, in my opinion, have really been helpful as Reviewers, both in encouraging me and in giving constructive criticism.

If you have not yet actually reviewed this story, or have only given couple-word reviews up until this point, but still want to do this, then by all means leave a 'good' review for this chapter, and I'll throw you into the consideration pot.

Lastly, this story is on the back burner right now, as compared to this, so going is slow. (It's only at, like, 8 pages right now), but I'm working fairly steadily right now, and it's probably the best writing I've ever done, so I'm liking the way it's going so far. All in all, I really have high hopes for it, and (if it ever does end up getting published), I would definitely put you in the dedication page. Or something like that.

And just one more note: A big thanks to KaidaSama for being my first beta reader. We're still getting a few bugs worked out, but I'm looking forward to a nice, long beta-ing relationship with her. Thankies, and I love you.

To the rest of you guys, Kaida's awesome. Litterally. She inspires awe.

Plus…

She's got a WAAAAAAY about her...

Don't know what it is, but I know that I can't live without her...

* * *

"Kagome, you look like shit." 

…

Well, that was _one _way to start a day. Kagome slowly glanced up around stringy, lank hair, and winked her baggy eyes tiredly at Terri, first one, then the other. Her friend was right of course.

She had stayed up most of the night after all. It had started with a game of something stupid, at InuYasha's insistence. And somehow, one game had become two, and two became three, and then there were all the funny little moments, where she and him just stared laughing, and then the game had fallen by the wayside, and they stayed up into the early morning, just talking and laughing and doing stupid things that weren't really funny, but they _were _at the same time.

And then she had looked up, and seen the time. 5:32. School in less than three hours.

She had gone to bed, for a little while, and was woken non-too-gently by InuYasha at 7:45. The bastard. He hadn't even given her time for a shower. She had been rushed out of the door before she even had her clothes all the way on.

And so she felt (and from what Terri said, looked) like a royal piece o' crap.

Wasn't that just great.

That idiot, InuYasha…

"Tired?" Terri asked, elbowing the shorter girl in the ribs.

Kagome nodded slowly, stumbling a bit.

"You were really sick, yesterday, then?" she asked, as she walked, crossing her arms. "I thought you might have just been skipping."

"I was," Kagome admitted, her voice soar and hoarse.

Terri's eyebrow rose. "Nice. What were you pulling?"

Kagome smiled at her prettily. "InuYasha got the stupid idea that he needed to go try and get into TaishoCorp again by himself." She remarked. "The idiot was gone by the time I got back from talking to you last Sunday… He didn't get back all night."

"He did _what_?" Terri scoffed, trying not to trip. "He _hacked _into _TaishoCorp_? How? We totally bombed it last time we tried!"

Kagome held up a hand. "Not sure how he managed, but he did it," she explained. "But it didn't end up doing that much good."

Well, that wasn't _exactly _true. It had done a lot of good. It just hadn't helped them out against their pursuer. But InuYasha, the poor boy, had something to hold onto now. That at least, was something she could claim to have gone well.

She felt proud of herself, actually. Somehow, she had managed to say exactly what InuYasha needed to hear. He was happy now. Scarily so, actually. He wasn't _nice _to her, to say the least; If anything he was even more abusive. But… he had a new… _step _in his voice. Like there was energy dwelling there just waiting to come roaring out. He was stronger now. She could tell.

"What do you mean, it didn't do that much good."

Kagome shrugged. "He managed to find his way to the computer of the founder and single CEO of TaishoCorp," she murmured. "Had a nice little chat with the guy."

Terri slowed to a leisurely scuttle, hanging of Kagome's words. "He talked with _Taisho?_"

Kagome nodded. "He knows about us Terri. Well, me, at least. We aren't sure if he knows about you or not. But he knows everything there is about me. He's got my address, my name, my Social Security Number, _everything_. He carries me around in a little pocket book. Hard copy, so InuYasha couldn't even get at the data."

Terri stopped moving altogether, face wilting. "Oh, God, Kagome…" she breathed. "Are you serious?"

Kagome smiled wryly, holding up a hand. "But it gets better. Taisho's already sent out someone to find us."

"…Damn."

"An American detective named Sango Sonada. _But_, for one reason or another, Taisho hasn't told her everything he knows. She's almost completely in the dark."

Terri regarded her with mild suspicion. "Are you serious?" she demanded.

Kagome nodded. "Only good thing InuYasha got from the trip was an entire profile on her. Plus, I've already met her once." She winced, and dodged out of the way of flying droplets as Terri began sputtering. "She caught be on the street, on the way back from WacDonalds. And she definitely had no clue who I was."

Shaking her head rapidly, Terri picked up the pace a little. "So, what do you think that means then?" she inquired. "I mean, Taisho probably has a reason for this, right?"

Kagome snorted, and shrugged. "Honestly, I'm not sure," she confided. "InuYasha said this guy seemed like a real nut. One of those eccentric rich guys, right? So, who knows what might be coming our way."

Terri nodded, and started swearing under her breath. "So, lemme get this straight," she muttered. "Your personal information is in the hands of a crazy guy who's had a multi-million dollar piece of software stolen from under his nose? That bodes well."

"Well, at least it seems we're safe for now."

"_Safe_?" Terri perked an eyebrow up at her. "We still have this Sango character to worry about, right?"

Kagome shook her head. "If what the profile InuYasha found was true, we have nothing to worry about," she chuckled. "She's a real romantic. A real day dreamer. She worked as a cop until Taisho gave her this detective gig, and as a cop all she did was push papers. No street work at all."

Terri mulled over that for a few moments, rolling the idea over in her mind. "Something about this is nasty," she decided. "What I've heard about TaishoCorp is definitely _not _mixing with what we have here. Taisho's supposed to be some super genius, both in computers and business, and he _never _messes around with crap like this. Something's wrong, Kagome."

The black haired school girl nodded. "Yeah, it feels funny to me to, but what can we do? Even if InuYasha managed to get all three of us onto the TaishoCorp networks, we wouldn't be able to get the data out of Taisho's hands, and-"  
"Hold on, Kagome," Terri muttered suddenly. "Think about that. Taisho had a hard copy of his data. Does that seem weird to you?"

Kagome pursed her lips. "Not so much weird. Just impractical."

"_Exactly_. Kagome, this man is in charge of the most powerful business in the world, and he didn't make it that way by being inefficient. Now, if you run a software company, especially one with a big-ass security system like TaishoCorps, you don't worry about digital data being stolen or lost, okay? It's not something that you even think about. Now, why would he have a hard copy, when he had all that digital firepower at his fingertips?"

Kagome blinked. "You don't mean…"

"Kagome, it sounds to me like he was expecting us. Maybe not exactly like we showed up, but he wouldn't have had it written down unless he didn't think his digital data wasn't safe. And think about this detective. I mean, if what you're saying is true, then we have a completely inexperienced girl fumbling around trying to find us. Something's up."

Chewing on her lower lip, she nodded. "Probably, but what do you think it is? It seems so _weird _now that I think about it."

"I know," the taller girl rumbled. "And I don't know what we can do about it, but we'll think of something. I'll stop by after taijutsu practice today, and we can think about it. Wanna ask InuYasha some questions about his little visit with our mutual friend, too."

Kagome nodded. "And in the meantime, we need to be careful if we see Sango. Even if she is a rookie, I really don't wanna have to deal with her getting too close to us."

Terri nodded. "So, what does she look like?"

Almost chuckling at the thought, Kagome rubber her temples. "Tall girl, pony tail, Matrix getup."

Terri stopped, and put her hands on her hips, looking down the sidewalk. "Sorta like that, eh?" she nodded forwards.

Kagome looked up, and froze herself. Sure enough, there was Inspector Sonada, getting out of her nice black car. The car was parked right across the street from their school. Inspector Sonada was making her way to the front doors.

Stifling curses, Kagome gave a quick nod, and began walking again. They couldn't afford to act suspicious. Terri smoothly fell into step behind her, and they made their way up to the school, inadvertently following in the detective's steps as the entered the building.

The crossed her in the halls, even. She was talking to the principle. Showing him a badge. She didn't give either Kagome or Terri a second glance. Breathing out a little sigh of relief as turned a corner, Kagome leaned up against the wall of the hallway. "That's her," she whispered unnecessarily. Terri had definitely already gotten that.

And she was struggling not to laugh. "A little over dramatic, don't you think?" she muttered. "Was that a full blown _trench coat?_"

Kagome nodded. "I told you. Real dreamer, no sense of reality. The bio said that she wanted to be a detective because she thought they were _cool_." She snorted. "And she writes stupid mystery love stories in her spare time, apparently starring herself."

This time Terri couldn't keep in the snort. "You know. I think you might be right. We aren't gonna have to worry that much about her, after all."

Kagome shook her head. "Told ya."

* * *

IM was an absolutely wonderful way to talk. At least, that's what Kagome thought. After all, it was silent, save the sound of the ticking of keys, and for once communication didn't rely on the terrible inefficiencies of actual speech. 

You could edit what you said, and even take them back up to the point where you pushed the enter button. You didn't get sidetracked by the tone of the person's voice, or what their body was doing, or what they were wearing, or any of the other millions of things you could get sidetracked by. The only thing that reached you was the pure, intended message.

_Plus_, you could IM in the computer lab without getting yelled at. The desk jockey definitely had a no-talking policy over the lab, and he watched for any infringement like an eagle. You could barely get a peep out without him noticing, let alone carry on a decent conversation.

So, it was IM, all the way. Some people would have considered it pathetic that she was talking to someone online when they were in easy talking distance, only three seats apart, but it was a necessity, as well.

**TheAsianRaven:** so, what are you doing right after school today?

**InterStellarHitchhiker: **Me?

**InterStellarHitchhiker: **I got Taijutsu at 7, but after that I'm free.

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** Got some homework to do afore then.

**TheAsianRaven:** k

**TheAsianRaven:** so, I'll head home, and talk things over with InuYasha, right?

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** sounds good. I'll just come over after practice.

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** you don't mind if I'm stinko-sweaty, do you?

**TheAsianRaven: **if ur really bad, I'll make you take a shower.

**InterStellarHitchhiker: **beautiful. I'll see you then, eh? Now, I must write a paper.

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** Stupid writing classes. I hate them.

**TheAsianRaven: **I know. Writing suks.

"Hey, it's not that bad, you know?"

Kagome jumped. She almost screamed, but she managed to keep that in. She landed turned around, shivering.

The smiling face of inspector Sonada greeted her. The woman looked like she was having trouble not laughing. "Sorry," she chortled, sitting down in the chair next to Kagome. "Couldn't help it."

Kagome gave her a few nervous nods and turned around again, stealing a quick, panicked glance to Terri. The only reply she got was a big shrug. Well, _that _was helpful.

Next to her, Sango narrowed her eyes at the blank computer screen, and began fiddling, cautiously hitting at some stray keys, with no result. Her eyes narrowed, and she scanned the keyboard slowly, then grinned when she finally managed to locate the power button. Beaming proudly, the inspector punched the thing and waited patiently as the machine started up.

Kagome rolled her eyes, and glanced over the IM conversation she was having, checking to make sure that nothing she didn't want known was on display. The only ting even slightly incriminating was InuYasha's name, mentioned once, and that was already off the screen, and Sango probably wouldn't even know it even if she did see it, so it was safe.

She relaxed just a bit, and casually brought up an internet window, surfing around with no particular purpose in mind. If she just acted natural, then there wouldn't be any trouble…

"Hey," the detective poked at her arm, breaking her out of her reverie. "How do you get into these things?"

Kagome lent one eye to her, lifting an eyebrow. "You need a user name and password," she muttered coldly.

Sango nodded. "Could you log me in, then?" She actually had the gall to look hopeful.

Kagome pursed her lips. "I don't think…"

Sango made a quick motion, and suddenly Kagome was staring at a very shiny badge. "Please? It's for business."

Kagome winced. This was just great. If she didn't help, then what would that look like? And if she did, then their enemy had a step up on them. "…Okay," she muttered after only a moment.

Sango watched brightly as she typed in her username and password. "Kagome? That's a pretty name," she commented thoughtful.

Inwardly, the schoolgirl winced. She had probably just given the detective some _vital _clue in the case, and now her and Terri were probably screwed.

Sango gave her an appreciative nod, and leaned over the console like a hawk, quickly poking around here and there. "Don't I recognize you from somewhere?" she asked as she worked, brown eyes working quickly and efficiently. "Where's AIM?"

Kagome shrugged. "You have to download AIM, and you met me on the street the other day."

Sango nodded, brow knitting in confusion. "That's right. Now I remember you. Didn't you say that you didn't know about computers?"

"I was busy."

"Right, right. Understandable, I guess. Now, how do I download things again?"

Kagome winced, this time out of sympathy. This detective didn't even know how to download AIM? She had no chance of ever catching them… what was Taisho thinking, sending a woman like this?

Shaking her head, a little more comfortable with the situation now, she leaned over. Go to the AOL website, and just follow the instructions," she guided, pointing at the appropriate place on the inspector's screen. "Then you just sign in and you're good to go."

Sango nodded, pursing her lips. "I get it," she muttered. "Thanks. You must be pretty good with this kind of stuff, huh?"

_You have no idea_… "Yeah, I guess."

"Yeah, I was never that great with all that technology stuff," she commented, starting to type in the newly formed window. "I can type stuff, I guess, and IM's kinda nice, but I don't know anything more than that."

"I'll bet," Kagome muttered dryly, trying to ignore the woman.

Apparently, she took the hint, and shut up. Grinning to herself, Kagome resumed doing a whole lot of nothing.

Thirty minutes and several dozen web comics later, Terri once again opened a little communication patch with her.

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** Hey, Kags. Sup?

**TheAsianRaven: **Nor much. Just surfing.

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** nice.

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** So…

**TheAsianRaven: **So what?

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** Whats she doing?

**TheAsianRaven:** ?

**TheAsianRaven:** who?

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** She's looking away right now. What did she say to you?

**TheAsianRaven:** Oh.

**TheAsianRaven:** Not much. Just that she didn't know technology and needed to get on IM.

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** Renowned detective uses IM. I love America.

**TheAsianRaven:** lol

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** No problems then?

**TheAsianRaven: **No… no problems.

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** !

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** okj

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** olk

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** ok

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** sp

**InterStellarHitchhiker:** wpo

Kagome gaped at the sudden influx of letters, and shook her head desperately. She shot a hard look at Terri, but the girl only gave her a poignant look.

"Oh, are you getting 'spam?'" she heard Sango's voice ask from right over her shoulder. She whipped around with a squeal, and took a long shuddering breath. "Sorry," the inspector smiled again, holding up a gloved hand. "Didn't mean to scare you, but I hear that spam can give you worms."

Kagome took a breath of relief. Terri had just saved her ass times twenty. If Sango had seen the conversation on their screen, they would have been in a whole lot more trouble than they already were in. She took a deep breath and responded. "Spam can give you viruses, and this isn't spam."

"Really? It looks like a virus to me."

"You wouldn't know, would you?" Kagome murmured coldly, desperately trying to get the woman to mind her own business. "It's just a friend being a jerk off."

Sango's eyes narrowed momentarily, then she brightened again. "_InterStellarHitchhiker?_ A Douglass Adams fan?"

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Yes," she stated curtly, trying to look busy.

"Izzat her over there?" Sango asked, a little to soon for Kagome's comfort, and pointed at Terri.

Kagome gaped, and cast a quick—to quick—glance at Terri, sitting innocently over at her computer. Sango smiled knowingly. "Smart," she commented. "Can't get in trouble for talking if you're not talking, right?"

Kagome nodded briefly. "Yeah," she muttered, getting up. It was time to cut this conversation short. "Sorry, I gotta go."

Sango nodded happily, and waved her off.

Kagome stalked away from the computers, yanking Terri by the collar as she did so. The taller girl rattled along behind her like a marionette, complaining loudly. Reaching the hall, Kagome spun her friend around, and crossed her arms. "She's _really _annoying," she hissed, teeth clenched.

Smirking happily, Terri nodded. "That's why I'm glad she chose to sit next to you."

With a growl of annoyance, Kagome began walking down the hall. "She's probably in the lab looking for anyone that seems suspiciously computer-savvy, right? So we should just stay out of her way, and try to lay low."

Terri thought about this for a moment. "But without computers, how will we survive?"

Kagome gave a little grunt of frustration. "Look, she's no danger as long as we stay out of her way, but we should play it safe anyway."

Terri raised her hands. "You got it master," she mumbled. "Since when did you become the brains of this outfit?"

Kagome shot her a death glare. "What?"

"You're acting all butch today," Terri remarked. "Sorta out of character don't you think?"

Kagome gave a long suffering sigh. "Yeah, I know," she confessed, trying to keep the acid out of her tone. "But think about it. I've gotten a cumulative four hours of sleep the last two days, and I've just found out yesterday that the most powerful businessman in the world knows where I live and wants to kill me."

"Yeah, you never did react well to stress, did ya?"

Kagome attempted to not break her teeth as she ground them against each other. "This goes _way _beyond stress, Terri."

"Awright…" the taller girl muttered, patting Kagome's back. "What do you have for the rest of the day?"

"Study hall, lunch, gym, and English."

"Non of which are important," Terri smiled Cheerily. "Let's go play some video games, and then head over to your place, eh?"

Kagome glanced at her. "I've already skipped yesterday," she said flatly.

"Good, so it's nothing new for you. Now c'mon." Terri grabbed Kagome's arm, and dragged her off.

Neither one noticed as Inspector Sonada meandered out of the lab, and glanced speculatively at the path they traveled down.

* * *

InuYasha was awoken (very rudely, he thought) to a sudden and terrible bout of raucous laughter. 

Wincing, and quickly turning down the reception on his microphone, he let out a feral growl. "Oi, bitches. What's the big idea?"

Kagome came into full view, followed closely by Terri. "Oh," she guffawed, face flushed just a little. "Sorry, InuYasha."

Well, she had _better _be. He had been having a really good dream, too. It involved lots of food, which was odd, considering he'd never eaten anything. He recalled things that tasted like chicken. But what did chicken taste like?

Terri and Kagome were still giggling, and attempting to quiet themselves.

InuYasha growled softly again. "What are you doing home right now, anyway? It's only noon."

"We're skipping," she explained, gasping for breath. "But the principle caught us on his lunch break, and we ran the entire way back here."

Terri, who had slumped down against Kagome's bed, lifted a fist into the air.  
"And we beat him. He was in a _car_, but we beat him."

Kagome nodded vigorously. "Had to cut through a couple lawns, but we got it."

InuYasha sat for a moment. Then he shook his head, chuckling. "You guys are gonna be in deep shit, you know that, right?"

Kagome shrugged. "Better than staying at school," she grumbled, cracking her knuckles. "I was going crazy."

"You weren't already?" InuYasha queried glibly, yawning on screen. "What's got you're stupid panties in a twist this time, wench?"

Terri beamed at him. "We met your detective friend at school today," she breathed.

InuYasha perked up an eyebrow, crossing his arms. "She's at your school?" he growled.

Kagome shrugged. "I'm not worried, though," she confided. "She seems like a complete loony. No threat whatsoever."

Terri gave a light cough before speaking. "_Seems_, I think, is the operative word there?"

Kagome gave her a quick glance. "You think you might have found out what's going on?" she demanded.

InuYasha scoffed. "My bio of her was pretty damn straightforward," he said, and conjured the document. "Taisho himself even made a note of it. Says right here: 'seems to be a dreamer with minimal chance of success,' and here again, just a little later, 'would need impractical amounts of help to prove useful.' Even Taisho thinks she's useless."

"Then why would he send her, dammit?" Terri mused, crossing her arms. "I _really _wish this guy would just grow up and act like a normal person. I know those rules, but we're playing along with something else here."

InuYasha scoffed. "Yeah, tell me about it." He grew quiet for a moment. "I don't like him. He's weird."

"Taisho?"

The program nodded, scowling. "When I talked to him, he was almost acting all friendly. Didn't threaten me or anything, 'cept once, and that was only when I threatened to take down every server he had."

Terri raised an eyebrow at her. "You could have done that?"

InuYasha shrugged, starting to tread carefully. He hadn't even told Kagome about his run-in with death, and had a distinct feeling that he'd get an earful if he ever did. He had to phrase this careful. "Something weird happened with my code while I was in there. Made me wicked ripped for a little while. I definitely could have taken down just about anything he had." He sighed, shaking his head. "Feeling it now though. Feels like I can barely do anything. Spent most of my time sleeping, since yesterday."

Terri raised an eyebrow speculatively. "You could always let me see your code. I could fix you, maybe?"

"Go screw yourself, pervert," InuYasha growled, and settled back down to a sitting position on the desktop. "You ain't seeing it, not now, not ever."

Terri gave him a puppy dog lip. "Please?"

"Hell. No."

Rolling her eyes, she turned back to Kagome. "Worth a try?"

Kagome shook her head. "I don't think he's gonna let you see him any time soon," she remarked.

Pouting, Terri curled into a ball on the floor. "Fine," she growled. "We can't go back to school, so how bout a quick game?"

"Unreal Tournament?" Kagome asked hopefully.

InuYasha perked an ear. "I'll own both of you," he cautioned.

Terri leaned up, and cracked her knuckles. "You're on. Nothing solves a stressful day like violence."

Kagome nodded sagely. "Plus, it keeps us out of school, and the further we are from Sango, the better. Even if she's harmless, she's annoying as hell."

"True, true," Terri vouched. "You'd have to try to be that annoying. She's way to… 'buddy buddy.'"

* * *

InuYasha shrugged. "I don't care if she's annoying. Just so long as she stays away from any of that help Taisho said she'd need, she's fine with me." 

"Houshi," Sango grumbled into her cell phone as she mulled over a spiced rum in a local bar, "You know that 'buddy buddy' routine you suggested I should use with the high school kids?"

"Yes, milady?"

Houshi's voice was charmingly sexy. It was the sort of voice that could sing birds out of the trees. To bad Sango actually liked her men to sound a bit more rugged. You know, like, actual men.

"I don't think that strategies working," she mumbled. "I think it's just sort of annoying them."

"Are you sure, lady Sango?" Houshi asked, his voice coming gently and softly over the speaker. "I should think that appearing friendly to high school children would be a much better strategy that waving your badge around. Especially considering that the badge you have is a fake."

Sango's eyes narrowed. "It's only fake until I finish this job, okay? Then I'm applying for a real one. And I really don't like the stupid routine, either."

"Nonsense, Sango. The best way to find who is an expert in a subject is to plead illiteracy. If you pretend you do not know computers, then you will surely draw out those who are experts."

Sango's tone flattened. "Houshi, I know next to nothing about computers as is, but pretending to need help downloading _aim_? That just a little degrading."

"As you wish…" Houshi sighed. "You found nothing today, then?"

Sango chuckled to herself. "Well, I wouldn't actually say that…"

"My strategies worked, then."

Sango rolled her eyes, and took a pull of her rum. "I think I've found our girl."

"Truly?"

Sango downed the rest of her drink and stood up, tossing a few bills on the bar. "Yeah," she grumbled. "All the info I've got adds up. She goes to the right school, everyone says she's kind of a recluse, which seems right for a hacker, and best of all, her screen name is the same as her hacker alias."

"You're positive of this?" Houshi asked. "There is probably more than on fan of Hitchhiker's Guide in a single school body. I myself have a mild fascination…"

Sango shook her head. "Call it a hunch, but I'm sure of it. I've got her address, her name, everything. I could make the bust tomorrow, if I wanted."

"…I see," Houshi murmured. "And how will you make this 'bust,' as you call it?"

_That _caught Sango off guard. "Buh…" she stammered, thinking hard as she pushed her way out of the bar. She couldn't actually arrest the girl. After all, she wasn't fully legal. Yet.

But what _could _she do? That Taisho guy had given her a number to call, but she really didn't trust him. Obviously, this was some sort of illegal war going on, and Sango had been a cop long enough to know how that ended up. Even if the girl was into illegal stuff, she didn't deserve to get shot in the head in a dark alley somewhere.

"I honestly don't know. Maybe I'll talk to her?"

"Don't do that, Sango. That would be silly."

"Are you sure? Maybe I could convince her to…"

"Sango, you write novels don't you?"

She blinked. "Well, yeah, but I don't see how-"

"This is not one of your novels, Sango. These girls were just in the wrong place in the wrong time, and they've gotten themselves messed up with one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world. The girl would not listen to you if you talked to her, and you would only be giving a blaring signal to TaishoCorp of her location. You would achieve nothing, and be putting yourself in a worse situation yourself."

Sango's brown knitted. "What do you mean?"

"Sango, this company you are working for is quite clearly doing something illegal. And you are wishing to become a detective, the right hand of the law. This will put them in a precarious position, knowing what you know."

Sango stopped, eyes narrowing. Dammit, she _really _wished she thought things through better before she jumped into them. "So I'm in danger too, not just these girls?"

"I'm not sure," Houshi confided. "I have had past… connections… with TaishoCorp, particularly with Taisho himself, and while you would certainly not want to get on his bad side, I would not thing that he would simply get rid of you the second you ceased being useful to him."

Sango started waking down the street again, lips pursing. "So, what should I do?"

"Keep doing what you are doing. Investigate this girl more; make sure she is who you think she is. I'll work on things on my end, and try to get you in a position that works to your advantage."

"Which will take how long, Houshi?"

"Give me one week. On next Tuesday, I will call you, and tell you the plan. Are you comfortable with that option?"

Sango thought for a moment. "You know, I don't even know what you look like?"

"Yes, I know."

"I've never met you face to face."

"Yes."

"I'd never heard your voice until a few days ago."

"It seems so."

"You called me out of the blue. I never gave you my phone number, or even where I lived. But you found my phone number all the same."

"Indeed."

"We've known each other through IM for maybe a year."

"One year, and four months. I celebrated our anniversary a few months ago."

"That's creepy."

"Yes."

"And you really expect me to just trust you?"

"That is an accurate assessment of the situation."

Sango pursed her lips. She _shouldn't_, of course. This was how bad things happened to people. Trusting strangers: a very bad idea.

But she had already started. No point going back now.

"Alright, I wait a week for you to get back in touch with me. After that, I'm gonna do things on my own, okay?"

"A week is all I will need, Milady Sango. Trust me."

"I am, Houshi. And I swear, if you make me regret it, I'll make _you _regret it."

"…yes, milady."


	18. Insurgency

BWAAAHAAAHAAA!

Gasps for breath

Uweeeheeheeheeheee

Heee

Heee

Hee

He he he…

dies

Seriously, though, folks, sorry this took so long. College uber-loser.

On a good note, I already have the next chapter and most of the following one written. They just need some editing, and then I'll give 'em to ya.

Oh, and sorry for any blaring errors of spelling and whatnot in this chapter. The reason it took so long, besides the beastliness of freshmen year in a liberal arts school, is that every time I edited it, I ended up rewriting HUGE chunks of the stupid freaking thing. I mean, it started off 8 pages long in it's original form. And over the weeks, it grew an extra ten. So yeah... I decided that I had waited long enough, and that I would just post it, come hell or hot water. So if there are things that done make sense in here, I"m sorry, but I really don't care anymore.

Now I am tired. And have paper sue tomorrow. And sleep. Sleep.

Hehehe…

He…

He…

dies again

* * *

"…In other news, hate crimes in schools, a recent outbreak in a private Washington DC school sparks controversy and outrage. 

"It was early Monday afternoon at the Perry-Davis Private High school when a sophomore, identified as Shippo Karota, was rushed to Children's Hospital with severe head trauma. According to the eyewitness accounts, he was tripped by an older student, and fell in such a way that he knocked his head against the hard tile of the school's hall floor.

"The story however, grew even more complex at the hospital. After several failed attempts to both resuscitate the unconscious boy and find his parents, it was determined that he had been homeless with no guardians for an extended period of time, although the actual time frame is yet undetermined. The boy, it was discovered, was extremely malnourished, had multiple vitamin deficiencies (including a calcium deficiency, which was probably what led the seriousness of the injury), and also possessed a growth disorder very similar to rickets.

"While each treatable, all these symptoms cause a synergistic effect with the concussion and have induced what doctors are calling a vegetative state. The boy has been in the hospital for three days now, giving no response to any stimulus whatsoever.

"The ordeal has sparked a great deal of the investigation of the school as well, and it has been discovered that the school is the site of what seems to be one of the greatest hate crimes in the past decade. Shippo, along with Senior, Rin Onigumo, were the only Japanese Americans attending the school, and-"

Rin tore the headphones off with a little growl of disgust, and leaned back in her seat. Dammit… Arms slipping around each other, she tilted her head and closed her eyes. Life really sucked, sometimes. Rin would've thought she'd be used to it by now, but fate, it seemed, kept on wanting her to be miserable.

She scowled, involuntarily. The little idiot. He had to go and get himself hurt, now, of all the times he could have chosen. Stupid little comatose bastard. He was always sticking his nose into her business. Ever since they had met, he not even a freshman yet, he had had this bizarre notion that he needed to protect her. Idiot. He was half her size. How could he protect her?

She didn't need protecting, anyway. She had been perfectly fine on her own up until that point; she didn't see why she needed some gallant pipsqueak following her around. But did he understand that? No. He went around going at anyone who even looked funny at her.

He would always insist that, despite all of Rin's claims to the contrary, she needed someone to look after her. Did it really never cross his mind that she was capable of doing those things? It wasn't that she couldn't defend herself; it was that it was a royal pain to do so. It achieved nothing, besides getting everyone angrier at you. It only ended it pain. So she didn't defend herself.

And Shippo had ended up in the hospital because if it.

She bit her lip, somewhat involuntarily. Shippo had said, after getting his leg broken, that the mouthing off he that had earned him the injury was well worth the pain. Rin had thought he was an idiot.

But when she thought about it, maybe what he said was right. What if she had stood up to that boy who had tripped her. If instead of walking away, and leaving Shippo to fight her battle for, she had turned around and told him off. Maybe even punched him. The kid hadn't been that big. He couldn't have hurt her that badly. It would have felt really good to punch him too. And then Shippo might not have stepped in. Or have fallen in a different way, at least. And the worst she'd probably come out of it with was with a bloody nose or a black eye.

Maybe…

"S'cuse me," a whiney voice mumbled in slurred Japanese.

She turned, glancing behind her, and found herself staring at a face remarkably similar to her own. She jumped just a bit at that, but quickly calmed herself. "Hai?" she responded, without too much stutter.

"You gonna use that?" the school-girl asked her, pointing at the blank screen of Rin's computer.

Rin turned haltingly to it, and then rose quickly from her chair. "Sor-" she caught herself. "Gomen."

The little girl smoothed down her pleated skirt and sat down, logging into the computer without even looking.

Rin stared at her for just a moment, before spinning on her heal, and walking out of the internet café. Rin felt slightly proud of herself. Since she was five, and had come over to the states, she hadn't spoken more than a phrase or two of Japanese, but here she had picked it back up again, and fairly well dusted it off in a few days.

Her memories of Tokyo were more than just a little faded from the long thirteen years, but what she had seen in the few days she had been here had shown her that not much had changed. The buildings were still tall and shiny, the streets were still packed dizzyingly full of people, and the little corner pachinko shops were still ringing merrily. The only thing different she could actually see was that the wide array of gadgets that everybody seemed to have were now smaller and slightly more breakable.

It was good to be back, too. Rin loved this city, even if she hadn't been to it in so very long. There was something special her, which no city in America had. She wasn't entirely sure what that something was, but it was there, nonetheless.

Rin began walking down a crowded sidewalk, blending almost perfectly into the crowd. It was a wonderful feeling, being overlooked. To everyone in this city, she was always just another face in the crowd. Give her half a week, and she'd be completely fluent again too, and it would barely take a day after that to break her distinctly American accent. It was a comfort to know that in one week's time, you wouldn't be able to tell her from another soul on the streets of the most amazing city in the world.

Rin found herself liking the idea of anonymity. Too bad she couldn't enjoy it most of the time. Only when she was walking around alone, like this, could she really enjoy the benefits of her blending powers.

When she was with Sesshoumaru she would still definitely get some stares. Most probably dismissed him as a big stupid cosplayer. A very good cosplayer, but a cosplayer nonetheless. Even so, he was still a six and a half foot tall man with a giant boa loaded onto one shoulder. And he stood like a freaking emperor too. His presence was enough to make you quake. That wasn't something that got ignored, even on the streets of Tokyo.

Well, no matter. She would enjoy the protection of being another face in the crowd while it would last. After that she would try to enjoy the protection of having a war-machine look after her.

And there was that word again, protection. Why was it that everything in her life seemed to just remind her of it? Why was someone always protecting her? And why did the thought of Sesshoumaru being the one to do it not make her hate the idea as much as she wanted to?

Certainly whenever Shippo (or anyone else, for that matter) tried to take a hand in her life, she would shove them away, violently, if she had to. But here we had a guy—a machine, for crying out loud—saying that his number one purpose in life was to ensure her safety. And she had just let him stroll into her life and take over. Hell, she already trusted the guy more than she had ever trusted anyone, and she had known him for barely a month now. Before that, her life was about her, and what she could do. Relying on others wasn't her style. Yet, here she was, completely dependent on him. If he left her now, she would probably die on the streets.

That thought should drive her absolutely nutso. But it didn't. And that was driving her absolutely nutso.

Dammit, what had happened to the values of independence she had held so long ago? Had they melted away, or were they just sleeping?

With a little twinge, she remembered all the times she had let people walk all over her. Had they ever existed in the first place?

Keh She didn't need to be thinking like that right now. Right now, she needed to be focusing on not getting lost on the way back to her hotel. Sesshoumaru was waiting for her, and if she was too late then he would probably come looking, and that considerably increased the odds of strangers on the street of Tokyo getting dismembered. She had better hurry…

Picking up the pace just a little, she began to work her way through the writhing anemone of bodies, heading towards the large building Sesshoumaru had paid for a room in. Rin didn't ask where he had gotten the money. She wasn't exactly sure she wanted to know.

The building was nice and clean. Very well kept. Rin was happy at least that her guardian had known enough about Tokyo to not get a room at the first hotel they came to. Staying with him in a love hotel would not be a good thing, in her opinion.

But then again, Sesshoumaru probably didn't even know what the crap a love hotel was.

She strolled through the lobby, and took and caught an elevator up to the fourteenth floor. After that, it was only a few turns and a long hall to her room.

A swipe of her keycard, a little click, and her door opened obligingly, Sidling in, she glanced around for Sesshoumaru.

He was standing by a window, outlined against the silvery light of a skyscraper. He wasn't doing anything. He wasn't even staring, which was just creepy. His eyes were closed, and he simply stood. It bothered Rin when he did this. It was as if he was lost in his own little world of introspection.

He turned to her as she drew nearer, eyes still closed. "Has your friend's condition changed?"

Rin shook her head, even though she knew he couldn't see her. "He's still the same," she muttered.

"This is unfortunate," he remarked, and gave no further indication of caring beyond that.

Rin pursed her lips, and crossed her arms. "It's alright," she muttered. "I'm sure the doctors will be able to help him."

One of Sesshoumaru's eyes opened slightly. "Perhaps," he mused. "One would suggest you are also mentally prepared to for the worst, though."

Rin's shoulders stiffened. Why did he have to say things like that to her? It really didn't seem to help any. "Thanks for that," she muttered sarcastically.

Sesshoumaru shrugged, and said nothing more.

Rin could feel her eyes narrowing. "So you don't think he's getting better?" she growled.

Sesshoumaru shrugged again. "I have no indication either way. However, to expect thing to turn out for the better based on hope along is foolish."

"So hope is pointless than?" Rin scoffed, turning around, and sitting on the bed. "Ain't you just a bucket of joy today?"

Sesshoumaru paused, glancing at her. He had his condescending smile on. "You misread my words," he commented.

"Yeah, bullshit," Rin growled, throwing herself down on the bed, and grabbing at her textbook.

If anything, the machines lips pulled up even higher. "Childish and foolhardy," he whispered, just loud enough for her to hear.

Ignoring that, she tore open her sketchbook, and began drawing on a clean page. The picture very quickly to the inarticulate form of an anvil dropping on her guardians head. After a brief moment of reflection, she added several more implements of pain to the picture (including a nest of fire ants), and glared back up at her tormentor, wondering what else she could draw him with. "So, when are you gonna go find this thing you're looking for anyway. You haven't left this room in days?"

"I have already found the person for whom I am searching," he murmured.

Rin's eyes snapped open. "So what are we still doing here?" she growled.

"I know where he is. However speaking with him is a different matter. I have never met the man, yet I know that he is... difficult to approach. It will require a certain amount of planning. This is what I have been doing these past few days."

"Planning?" she demanded incredulously. "You're a freaking military robot. What would you need to plan for?"

"Subtlety, Rin. It is an important skill. I would prefer to remain anonymous."

"Then why don't you lose the boa, genius," Rin growled, adding some artillery to her picture. "You don't look subtle."

"It is not looks I am referring to," the machine commented. "I merely wish to avoid bringing down buildings."

Rin blinked. Sesshoumaru didn't sound like he was joking. Nor had Rin ever heard him joke before. "What exactly are you going to be doing?" she demanded, a little less certain that she wanted Sesshoumaru to hurry.

"Merely asking someone a few questions."

Rin nodded. "That shouldn't be too dangerous, then should it."

"Very dangerous," Sesshoumaru corrected.

Rin bit her lip, and nodded. "So, this is more than just a friendly chat?"

"Friendly? I think not."

"Right..." Rin mused, now very much doubting that she wanted Sesshoumaru to rush this.

"You are concerned for Shippo, are you not?"

She glanced up sharply, staring at his eyes suspiciously. "Well, yeah?"

"Very well," Sesshoumaru mused. "It would be better for you if you were to return to your friend soon, I think. I will attempt to make the rest of this trip brief."

Rin tried to ignore the little speck of cynicism in her. "Thanks," she said. "But if this is dangerous, you're right. You shouldn't rush."

Sesshoumaru wasn't listening. Instead, he was staring very intently at the door, eyes narrowing speculatively. "I have no intention of of rushing. However, I believe I have just thought of a possibility."

"Really?" Rin asked not bothering to keep the skepticism out of her voice. "Good one?"

Sesshoumaru strode to the door. "There will be some improvisation involved," he murmured, seemingly satisfied with himself. "However it also requires immediate action."

"Like, now?" she gasped.

"Indeed," Sesshoumaru stated, heading towards the door. "I would advise you be ready to leave very shortly. Have everything you might need on you." He fixed her a piercing look. "It is likely that things will be inconvenient for us after this day is over."

Rin swallowed thickly, trying not to imagine the implications of that, as Sesshoumaru slipped out of the door.

Anything she might need? Her hands instantly tightened around the sketchbook and pencil, and then scoured the room for anything else that looked likely. She didn't really have much in the way of clothes. Just what she was wearing and a pair of pajamas, purchased from an airport convenience store for the sake of having something else to wear around the hotel. Those seemed slightly trivial, though. So, all she really needed was the sketchbook. Well, at least she could say she was getting by with the bare necessities, she supposed.

A knock at the door broke off her search, and she glared at it suspiciously. Was Sesshoumaru back yet? Or was it...

"Housekeeping?"

...oh.

Rin blushed just a little, feeling more than sheepish. She walked towards the door, and pulled it open. "Sorry, we really don't need any right now," she said in plain Japanese before she even saw who was there. Then she looked, and blinked in confusion. She had been expecting someone in a uniform with a cleaning cart, not a tall man in... hiking gear?

The man smiled at her cheerfully, pulling his high pony tail over one shoulder. "Konichiwa, Onigumo-san."

Rin took a step backwards. How had he known her name?

He did a little bobbing nod, and suddenly his fist flashed forward, and embedded into her stomach. Pain, that deep seated, debilitating pain that crippled every nerve in the body spread from that contact, and she collapsed into him, shuddering violently.

"Sorry about this," the man whispered in her ear, and with ease slung her over his shoulder. "I'm afraid we need you to help us."

He didn't see Sesshoumaru rising up behind him until it was considerably to late.

* * *

Taisho's hand was tossing a knife. A long slim one. Well balanced: made for throwing. 

His other hand was resting on his keyboard.

There was a knock at the door.

Taisho glanced up, and casually inspected the blade in his hand. "Come in," he murmured.

The door pushed open. There was a solid thunk.

Kikyo froze, halfway through the door, eyes slowly tracking sideways to where the knife quivered in the door-frame, not a half-foot from her face.

Taisho's eyes widened momentarily, and he sat down again, quickly sliding a second knife up into his sleeve. "Miss Kikyo, my apologies," he dismissed. "I was expecting someone else, you see?"

The woman glanced directly at the knife, and then back at her boss. "Would you like me to come back later, sir?"

Taisho shook his head happily. "No, no, Miss Kikyo. Come in, please."

Kikyo nodded, and strode in, prying the knife out of the wood as she did so. She dropped it on his desk as she walked by. "Taisho, Sir, I was wondering if I might speak with you on the matter of Hanyou?"

Taisho waved a hand of dismissal. "Please, Miss Kikyo, you went through a lot of work and hardship to give him a proper name. We might as well use it."

Kikyo took a deep breath, and nodded. "Very well, Sir. I was wondering if you plan to do anything more with InuYasha."

Taisho nodded, lips pursing. "I am considering my options," he admitted, crossing his arms. "But you should keep in mind that things very well might not go as you hope. If we do obtain him, I also have certain plans, you understand. You would not be able to keep him for yourself."

Kikyo looked downcast, if only for a moment, before nodding. "I understand that, sir. I simply don't like the thought of him being in someone else's hands."

Taisho smiled, and crossed his arms. "I understand, Miss Kikyo. I will take you're… emotional involvement with him into account."

Kikyo bowed, far more respectfully than she ever had in the past. "Thank you, sir."

"Glad to be of assistance, Miss Kikyo," Taisho murmured. "Now, if you would-"

There was a sudden ringing from his computer, and a rattling from one of his drawers.

Kikyo gave him the oddest look.

He smiled nervously, and slid the drawer open just an inch. One of Kirara's red eyes peeked out at him. "Sir, we have a problem."

Taisho smiled patiently, and cast an apologetic glance towards Kikyo. "I'm mildly busy at the moment."

"Big problem, sir."

The CEO glanced up at Kikyo, and shrugged. "Ah, well, you might as well meet her," he murmured, and opened the drawer. Kikyo's eyes widened when he lifted Kirara's little frame out of her box, and set the little wired cat on the table. "Kikyo, this is Kirara, our security system."

"Hiya," Kirara bobbed slightly in greeting. "Sorry I don't have to properly introduce myself."

Quickly, with awkward mechanical moments, the machine turned towards Taisho. "Look at the screen, big guy. You'll see what's going down."

Taisho spun in his chair, and looked at it expectantly as the entire wall seemed to slide away, revealing a massive screen. "Oh my," Taisho mused, stroking at a non-existent beard. "This is interesting."

Most of the screen was full of Kouga's face. He was very unconscious. What little of the screen was visible beyond that showed a clawed hand wrapped around his throat, and a calm face.

Taisho winced, and turned back, rubbing the back of his head nervously. "That's a problem."

"Pretty much," Kirara nodded. "So, uh, what do you want I should do about it?"

Taisho waved a hand of dismissal. "I'll take care of it," he muttered.

Kirara did a small kitty-shrug, and jumped back to her drawer, trailing a few stray wires here and there.

"Oh, and Kirara?" Taisho murmured. "If he has a girl with him, and you get the chance, don't hesitate to grab her. She's our bargaining chip."

"Yes sir."

The draw slid shut.

Taisho nodded slowly, and turned back to smile at Kikyo. "Well, that was fascinating, yes?"

Kikyo was slightly pale, and giving him an odd look. "Sir, was that a robot?"

He nodded. "Firecat.exe. One of my earlier projects. I had a little body for her made, just as a minor side project a few years ago. She takes care of our online security."

Kikyo nodded slowly. "And what is going on now?"

"You remember how we gave Youkai.exe to Naraku a little while ago?"

"Yes?"

"Well, he killed Naraku, and is currently sitting at one of our secret entrances, holding one of my most valuable employees hostage," Taisho answered honestly. "That doesn't sound very fun to me, does it?"

Kikyo blinked. "I'm sorry sir, but I don't necessarily find that funny. What is really going on?"

Taisho seemed to be ignoring her now, though. He hit a little button on his desk, and a little microphone popped out. "Attention all employees," he spoke loud and clear into the microphone. "This is Taisho, your head CEO speaking. Due to a sudden business opportunity, we are going to be closing early such that a contractor might come in and inspect the building for possible remodeling opportunities. I understand this is short notice, and the administration apologizes for that, however it is necessary for all employees, including security and janitorial committees, to leave the building immediately. Please use the main entrances to avoid confusion. We apologize again for any inconvenience, and any work that this interferes with will have its deadlines adjusted to make up for the loss in time. Thank you, and have a good day."

Quick as glass, he hit another switch, and a different light came on. "Hello, this is Taisho speaking. A word to all our illegal divisions of business: get out of the building. Fast. There will be an assassin within the walls of the building in five minutes, and in all likelihood me and him will be stalking each other shortly. As such, if you are still in this building during that time, I will not be held responsible for your death or dismemberment. The intruder is currently at secret entrance 6-b, so it would be advisable not to use that one. Thank you, and have a good day."

Taisho flipped yet another switch. "Hello there," he said cheerfully. "Sesshoumaru, right?"

On the screen behind him, Kouga was dropped, and the calm face came to stand front a center.

"Right, okay, then," Taisho laughed. "You probably want in, right? Well, you'll have to give me a few moments, to evacuate some of the employees. Wouldn't want any bystanders caught up in this mess, would we?"

The face glared at the camera a moment, then nodded slowly. It was a nod that said Sesshoumaru didn't give a damn about the bystanders.

Lastly, he pulled a cell phone out of his pocket, and flipped it open. "Monten?" he growled into it, roughly. "Is your brother there?" -- a short pause -- "Good. Meet me on the roof with a helicopter in one hour, understood? Very good. Meet you then."

Taisho licked the phone shut, and grinned nervously at Kikyo. "Tell me, Miss Kikyo, have you ever been in a high stress situation before?" He quickly stood up, and opened another drawer in his desk. Out of it he pulled out one of his personal custom made magnums. He contracted them special, from one of his personal favorite mechanics, and they packed quite a wallop. An anti-tank artillery sort of wallop. Taisho desperately hoped it would be enough. He also pulled out several more knives, and they quickly disappeared into various pockets of his coat. "They aren't very fun, Miss Kikyo. I would suggest that you leave as well."

Kikyo was giving him a look of complete astonishment. "Sir, you're actually going to fight that thing? It's a military robot, sir. There's no chance you could defeat it."

Taisho held a finger to her lips. "First off, Miss Kikyo, I would very highly recommend you not judge what I can and cannot do. And second off, I have no intention of 'defeating him.' That would defeat the purpose of making him in the first place. My main concern is making him not want to kill me anymore."

Stuffing the magnum into his pocket, her turned away from the desk. "Kirara, count to five minutes and then let our guest in. Try and get Kouga away from him if possible, and the girl as well if she is here. But be gentle with the girl, because this person is definitely someone you wouldn't want mad at you."

With that, he strode out of the office, barely noticing Kikyo following in his wake. "Sir, I would strongly advise against this course of action. We programmed Youkai to be almost perfect. Its reflexes are considerable more than that of a normal humans, not to mention the sheer amount of combat data it has. It is a killing machine. You'll get slaughtered, sir."

"Which begs the question as to why you are still following me," he muttered, loading the magnum. "I told you it would be wisest to flee."

"I think it would be wisest for us both to flee, sir." she hissed.

"But that would mean leaving Kouga, and that is something I would really prefer not to do."

"Kouga will be fine."

"Kouga will die, Miss Kikyo, and if you think he won't then you really don't know your own program. And I would prefer it if Kouga didn't die. He's fairly irreplaceable."

"Sir, you could always get another chief of security."

"Kikyo, Kouga is much more than my chief of security. I would also very much like to keep him around for sentimental reasons."

"I didn't know you had sentiments, sir."  
"Why aren't you leaving Miss Kikyo?"

"Because, sir, I am a complete idiot, and if you die than nobody else is going to hire a programmer with no college degree."

"Point and case," Taisho admitted. "Well, then, do try not to get in the way."

"I'll try, Sir." She blinked. "Where exactly are we heading, sir?" She knew this building fairly well, and they were heading towards a dead end.

"Shut up, Miss Kikyo," Taisho murmured, trying to keep the stress out of his voice. When he had programmed Sesshoumaru, he hadn't actually thought that it would come back to haunt him.

They hit the back wall of the hallway they were running down, and Kikyo crossed her arms at him. "What are we doing now, sir?"

Taisho held up a patient finger to her, and smiled. "Listen, Miss Kikyo. Our job here is to survive. It's almost been five minutes, and pretty soon we are going to have a killing machine chasing us mercilessly through this building. Silence is utterly vital, so after I'm done, you are not to speak. Understand?"

Kikyo paled, and nodded. "But-"

Taisho cut of off with a hand across her lips. "Don't." He muttered, and turned back towards the wall. "Kirara, open it."

With a sudden jolt, the wall rumbled aside, and revealed a hard stainless steel passageway, disappearing into the darkness. Taisho turned, and started walking down it. Kikyo swallowed visibly, and quickly followed.

* * *

"You call this improvisation?" Rin demanded as she found herself led inside the building. "This is abso-freaking-lutely crazy, you retard!" 

Sesshoumaru strode down the hall confidently, yet somehow not making a sound, dragging the unconscious guy beside him noiselessly.

"Why are we doing this, again?"

"Because I need answers to questions," Sesshoumaru murmured.

"What kinds of questions?"

Sesshoumaru turned softly, glancing at her. "I doubt that you would wish to know many of them," he said cryptically, in a way that very much discouraged further questions.

Rin ignored the tone. "Why not?"

"Because many of them regard you," Sesshoumaru murmured without any hesitation, and took a sudden left.

Rin followed dutifully, curiosity starting to poke at her. "What about me?"

Sesshoumaru snorted, but gave no response. If anything, he merely quickened his pace. "You should best be careful," he murmured after taking another right turn. "The person we are hunting is dangerous, and has already attempted to take you hostage once." He jerked the man in his hand around a little, just for emphasis.

True... that had scared Rin, more than a little. The fact that the person knew where she was and knew her name meant that other people might be able to find her too, and she wasn't deluded enough to think that people wouldn't be looking for her, especially after the fire and her dad's lab. And right now, she thought it might be better to not be found, if more for Sesshoumaru's sake than hers.

Sesshoumaru stopped suddenly, and she managed to stop just short of tripping over the dragging boa behind him. Except it wasn't really dragging. It seemed to more float than anything else, because it seemed to never be dirty, no matter what. Rin made a mental note to ask about that, later, but that was a thought for another time .

She glared up. "What's with the sudden stopping?"

Sesshoumaru held up a hand, and signaled for her to stop. Then the lights suddenly flickered out, plunging the entire corridor into darkness.

Rin let out a scared little squeak, an inched closer, feeling out for her guardian, very suddenly glad she had one.

"They have cut the electricity," Sesshoumaru observed, more to himself than to anyone else.

"Who exactly is 'they?'" Rin quavered. "I thought we were dealing with one person."

"I have counted at least three thus far," Sesshoumaru confided. "Yet I would guess there are upwards of five or six."

"Five or six?" she demanded incredulously. "We're talking that many?"

He shook his head. "We are stalking one. The rest are stalking us. We are, after all, intruders."

Why, oh, why had Rin let him drag her along on this? She was going to die, she knew it.

"Sesshoumaru, why did you drag me along for this?"

"There were two others in the hotel as well, waiting in case this one should fail," Sesshoumaru stated, holding his captive up. Rin could barely make out the outline in the darkness. "It was safest for you too be at my side."

"This is safe?" she demanded, gesturing around.

"It would be safer if we were silent," Sesshoumaru noted, glancing left and right. His tone left little room for argument.

Rin started to say something, but thought better of it. Instead, she also tried to hear what he was listening for. She couldn't pick up a damn thing.

Sesshoumaru, however, seemed to be noticing something very suspicious. Instantly, he turned towards the corridor directly across from them, and held out a claw. The streamer of light lanced from it like an arrow from a bow, and lanced down the corridor, and went ridged somewhere down the hall.

Rin gasped as something barreled out of the corridor, and smashed Sesshoumaru into the opposite wall.

The light beam instantly dispersed, and another figure stepped out, this one a taller and skinnier outline. "Oi, Monten. C'mon, we don't have time to waste. We gotta get to the chopper, remember." The voice said in a thick, arrogant Japanese. "We don't have time to mess with these idiots."

The first figure, short and stocky, rose to his feet unsteadily, and kicked at Sesshoumaru's prone form. "I suppose so, brother, but that really hurt."

"What do you think he is?"

"Looks like one of us..." the smaller figure muttered. "But Taisho would tell us if he had made another one, wouldn't he?"

"Maybe this was one of the two rouges. You know, Hanyou or Youkai."

"Yes, that must be it. But why is he here."

Rin, baffled beyond all belief, began to back up. Then, another voice joined the fray. "It's Youkai," it growled, and Rin quickly recognized it as the voice of the man who had tried to kidnap her earlier.

"Kouga," the tall figure murmured. "What are you doing here?"

"Bastard snuck up behind me, and took me out before I had a chance to react. You two had better run along now. It'll be hell when he wakes up. This guy's a beast."

Rin staggered backwards some more, and plastered herself against the wall, hoping she could remain unseen.

"Alright, I'll tie things up here," the one called Kouga was saying, rising to his feet.

"Sure thing," the tall shadow said, fading away down the hall. "If you see Taisho, tell him the chopper will be ready in time, no problem."

The smaller figure faded as well, leaving Rin alone with the tall figure of Kouga, and and Sesshoumaru's still body. Rin edged even further away, trying to not be seen. How could he have been taken out that easily? A single blow? That was impossible, wasn't it? He was a war-machine!

Kouga bent down, seeming to inspect Sesshoumaru briefly, and then stood up again. "Shoddy craftsmanship, eh, Onigumo-san? We were wrong to trust you old man with making Sesshoumaru properly."

Oh, fuck. He knew she was here. She began edging even further away, only to be caught by a hard nudge in the small of the back. "Onigumo-san," she heard Kouga's voice in her ear. "Sorry about this, but this Sesshoumaru guy doesn't like us very much, and you seem to be our only bargaining chip against him, so I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to stay still." How had he moved so fast? She had barely seen it.

She swallowed, and went slightly limp, allowing him to pull her closer. Shit, shit, shit. What had happened to Sesshoumaru?

And suddenly a beam of light pierced right over her left shoulder, and there was a howl of pain from directly behind her.

The hand on her shoulder jumped away, and instantly she bolted. Sesshoumaru, tall and proud, was standing with an arm outstretched, the beam of light dripping from his fingers and piercing Kouga's chest. Rin quickly shifted to cower behind Sesshoumaru's tall figure.

There was the soft sound of clapping, and both girl and guardian whirled towards the sound.

The man walking towards them continued clapping his hands. "Impressive," he commented taking a step forward.

"You are Taisho?" Sesshoumaru murmured. Rin glared at the man. He had a smug grin on his face. So... this was who all the ruckus was over. He didn't look like anything too special. Not to Rin, anyway.

He nodded, smiling slightly. "I am."

Sesshoumaru's gaze shifted down to Rin, then back up to the man himself. "Step away," he commanded simply.

Taisho looked back down at Rin, for only a brief minute locking eyes with her. Rin had to repress a swallow. Taisho's eyes were weird. They seemed to have the same cool detachment of Sesshoumaru, but with none of the regality. He scared her.

"I fail to see why I should," he stated, eyes narrowing. Sesshoumaru's whip of light lanced directly his shoulder, and punched through the ceiling beyond him, remaining there, hanging a few inches from his neck. Taisho didn't even give it a glance, and instead gave both of them a little smirk. "Cute," he muttered, reaching into his suit coat and pulling out a smooth, jet-black magnum. "But not overly effective."

He moved, almost casual in his sudden forward dash, and to Rin's eyes it looked like he wasn't possibly moving fast enough to avoid Sesshoumaru's other outstretched hand, claws ready to rend him in half. This was why she was so surprised when Taisho smoothly dodged the blow and wrapped a hand around her face, and yanked her another five feet down the hall, leveling the magnum at her temple as he turned around.

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed more than they already were, and he scowled. "Cowardly," he rumbled.

Taisho shrugged. "I don't have your nobility, _milord_. I don't care if it's cowardly."

Sesshoumaru's expression slowly changed to a smile. "Will you be able to pull the trigger before I end your life?" he asked slowly.

Taisho shrugged again. "Probably not, but I could try. Are you willing to risk it?" His finger tightened on the trigger. A single twitch would fire it off now. Rin could see his finger trembling. She stole a quick, fearful glance to Sesshoumaru. He showed no sign of emotion, but he was also making no further hostile move.

Taisho seemed to regard him for a moment; then smirked. "Why aren't you killing me, Sesshoumaru?" he asked, and to Rin's ears it sounded like a genuine question. "There must be some reason for it…"

Sesshoumaru didn't deem that with a response. Yet, Rin saw out of the corner of her eye, he wasn't making any movements either. What the hell _was _he doing?

Taisho's brow knit for a moment, then shot up in sudden understanding. "You aren't here to kill me?"

Sesshoumaru seemed to think about this for only a moment. "Not at the moment," he said, voice just above a whisper.

With a sudden sigh of relief, Taisho's gun dropped from Rin's face, and the man wiped some sweat from hi brow. "Really?" he demanded, scratching at the back of his head. "Cuz I would have sworn the first thing you'd do after knocking off Naraku was come after me."

Sesshoumaru gave him a long, slow look, and dissipated the whip of light.

Taisho nodded appreciatively, and began putting the gun back into his suit coat. "Well, now that we've come to a civili-"

He was cut off as a clawed hand wrapped around his throat, and thrust him into the wall with enough strength to set the hall to rumbling. His eyes bugged out as Sesshoumaru casually increased the pressure of his grip. He cast a glance to Rin. "Are you unharmed?"

If Rin had been less scared, she would have exploded at him. But as things stood she simply climbed unsteadily to her feet, and nodded rapidly.

Sesshoumaru quickly shifted his gaze from his charge to the darkness further down the hallway. "It would be best for you to come out," he murmured threateningly.

Rin glanced sharply to the darkness, where she actually noticed the small frame of a woman. She was dressed in nice business clothes, and looked absolutely terrified. The second Sesshoumaru addressed her, she took a few halting steps forward, but Rin could tell she would like nothing better than to turn and bolt.

Almost nonchalantly, Sesshoumaru held out his claws to her. They began to glow. For just a moment, Rin saw the same look in Sesshoumaru's eyes as he had had that night a week ago in her adopted father's lab. "This Sesshoumaru asks your name," he hissed in archaic Japanese.

Rin felt a shiver run up her spine and into her scalp at the tone. Sesshoumaru was ready to kill this woman the second she did something that he didn't like.

The poor thing seemed to be realizing this herself, and took an involuntary step backwards. She looked like she was about to run.

"Flight would be… ill advised," Sesshoumaru murmured, hands glowing even brighter, a small bit of the whip of light beginning to ooze from his claws. "State your name."

The woman shuddered again, and collapsed against the opposite wall. "Higusha Kikyo," she stuttered, so soft that Rin could barely here.

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed for just a moment, as his grip on Taisho's neck continued tightening. The man was twitching ever so slightly now, the choking noises he had been making now almost totally silent. "I see…" the machine mused. "It is you, along with this" – he cast an unsavory glance at the man in his claws – "who were my creators…"

Kikyo paled even more, and then nodded slowly. Sesshoumaru might have smirked. "You will tell me what I wish to know then, or I will rip this man's head off, and then kill you as well."

He wasn't joking.

He glared coldly at the woman at his mercy. "What restrictions have you imposed on me?"

For just a brief moment, confusion overcame fear in the woman's expression, terror quickly smothered it again. She only shook her head feebly, not comprehending enough to answer.

Sesshoumaru barely stifled a rumbling growl, and slowly turned towards her. "Restrictions…" he reiterated. "Things you have hard coded into me. Things that I am… _programmed _to do."

Again she shook her head, but this time not from confusion. "No…" he voice caught once, then again. "Nothing. You were completely unrestricted-"

The beam of light shot, drawing a glowing streak of melted wall down a mere inch from her head. Kikyo screamed and dove to the side, huddling away from the burning scorch mark.

"You lie," Sesshoumaru hissed. "I am unable to do everything I wish to do. Why is this?"

Kikyo, now sprawled across the hallway, began to squirm feebly away from Sesshoumaru, which only served to bring her closer to Rin. "I didn't to anything," she said, rushed, somehow managing to spew words in place of the silence that had petrified her moments before. "I only worked on the code; I didn't do anything that I wasn't supposed to. Talk to him, Taisho. He's got the authority around here."

Sesshoumaru's gaze slowly shifted towards his helpless captive. "Tell me what you did," he murmured slowly, lightening his grip enough for the man to squeeze breath in edgewise. Even being lifted a foot off of his feet, and almost strangled, Taisho still somehow managed to give Sesshoumaru an arrogant little smile.

"Same answer as her," he gasped, using his own arms to keep him from dying in the hard grip. "I didn't put a single restriction on you. You, Sesshoumaru, are a completely free AI. You don't have any duties or protocols. You can do whatever you want."

Sesshoumaru's eyes darkened, and he shook the man, roughly. "It is useless and pathetic to lie to me," he growled. "I have been restricted…"

Taisho grinned again, and his gaze suddenly shifted to Rin. "It's the girl, isn't it?"

Sesshoumaru didn't stiffen. He was far too graceful for that, but Rin did see something in his demeanor change. Taisho noticed it as well.

"I knew it," he growled, even though he was out of breath. "I should have guessed when you didn't kill me strait away… You couldn't. You're not allowed to put her life in danger, are you?"

Sesshoumaru made no attempt to hide his growl this time. "If you understand the problem, I demand you fix it."

Taisho only shrugged as much as he could, given his position. "I can't," he said simply. "I didn't design you to care about her in the first place. By all rights, I would have thought you'd have killed her long ago for the inconvenience to you."

Rin listened to this with an odd sort of numbness. Sesshoumaru protected her because he had to. It made sense. All too much sense. A bitter, screwed up, shitty sort of sense.

"Then _why _can I not do just that?" her guardian demanded. "If there is nothing in my code then how may I rid myself of this problem?"

"What problem?" Taisho murmured. "Is that what you really see it as?"

Then Sesshoumaru threw him into a wall, hard enough to send cracks up and down the hallway. Taisho began to cough up blood. "It does not befit this Sesshoumaru to toady to a childish human bitch." It was said with icy coldness, as if he was stating a fact. Even the 'bitch' at the end wasn't any more an insult than any other arbitrary noun might have been.

Rin wasn't aware of her tears until they tickled at the tip of her nose.

Taisho's eyes narrowed, and he his hands came up to wrap around Sesshoumaru's arm. "Too bad, Sesshoumaru. I really thought I had made you stronger than that." With a sudden jerk, Taisho snapped his arm out, somehow summoning a small knife into his hand. With and expert motion, he drove it strait through his oppressors wrist, and kicked off hard from his chest. Sesshoumaru's hand spazmed momentarily, losing all grip on the captive. He scowled darkly when the entire arm fell to his side, uselessly limp.

Taisho dashed away, grabbing Kikyo as he went, supporting her around the waist with an arm, and rubbing the back of his head with another. "Faulty construction, Sesshoumaru. You're far too easily damaged."

Sesshoumaru only scowled.

"Listen close, Sesshoumaru," he muttered, backing up with Kikyo firmly in his grasp. "Honestly, I don't know what the hell is keeping you attached to that girl. But, I _do _know that when I made you, I made you perfect. I ain't never made anything as flawless as you are, so don't bitch about how you don't like the way you were made." His eyes narrowed. "Any flaws weren't put in there by me, so you had better not run to me to get them fixed, got it?" He was almost level now with Kouga, and slowly bent to pick up the slumped man as well. "You interrupted an entire business day for all my employees. You seriously injure one, scare the other shitless, and in general make yourself a royal pain in the ass." He slung Kouga over his shoulders as easily as someone might a sack of potatoes. "Try anything like this again, and I'll kill you and the girl without a second glance your way, and that's something I'd really not like to do, got it?"

With a sneer, Rin's guard lifted a hand, and shot the beam of light directly at Taisho's forehead-

And he dodged. How, exactly, was unclear, but Taisho somehow been fast enough to simply sidestep the beam of light that had sought his life. The man ginned as Sesshoumaru whipped the stream of heat towards him, lashing savagely after the man's life, and dodged again, and a third time, moving with near-inhuman agility despite his heavy two-person burden. He dodged back further, and, almost shrouded in darkness, gave out a whooping laugh. "You might be top of the line, Sesshoumaru, but your one hundred years to early to kill me," he crowed, and disappeared down the hallway.

For a brief moment, Sesshoumaru considered giving chase, before the restrictive part of him that so dearly wanted gone kicked in. He shifted his gaze towards Rin. She was trembling violently, water on her cheeks. _Crying_… a useless human symbol. Lamentably, it was necessary to check her health.

He walked towards her, and looked down at her, carefully modifying his expression such as to not betray anything. "You are unharmed?"

She twitched slightly, and turned her head to look at him with hurt eyes. Sesshoumaru didn't let his expression change. Slowly, her head dropped again, and she started the long process of getting to her feet. "So…" she muttered, so soft that it was hard even for Sesshoumaru to hear her.

Sesshoumaru glanced at her, wondering what she might be thinking. She seemed… fragile.

She glanced up and lent him a sheepish smile. "You got what you need here?"

Sesshoumaru slowly nodded, and took a step down the hall they had came from.

Rin followed dutifully after him, not talking much. The silence did a surprisingly good job of mocking Sesshoumaru. Perhaps it would be wise for him to say something. He was considering it when Rin filled in the silence for him.

"Can we go home?" she asked quietly. "I'd like to see Shippo."

Sesshoumaru thought for a moment, and nodded. "Yes, Rin. We can go home."

* * *

As soon as Taisho was out of Sesshoumaru's sight and hearing, he began to sprint, chanting every curse word he knew in every language he could think of – a collection enough to fill a small library – like a mantra. He was more than a little surprised when Sesshoumaru hadn't come dashing after him, blazing with fury.

Of course, he should count himself lucky in that case. There would be no chance of any of them surviving if the killer _had _given chase. For all Taisho's bravado, he had taken a huge gamble just in bolting.

Hell, he was even lucky he had managed to damage Sesshoumaru's arm as much as he had. It had barely been more than a wild stab.

Quickly, using all the considerable short cuts he knew, he headed towards the roof where, if he had any luck, his two subordinates had followed his commands, and that he had a chopper waiting.

After a final, grueling set of stairs, he kicked open the final door and broke out into the cool air of outdoors. The cool air of outdoors was something he hadn't seen in a long while, along with natural sunlight. He was quite positive that both things were bad for him.

He glanced up and saw both his grunts, Hiten and Monten, standing next to a wonderfully prepped chopper, both wearing the overdramatic trench coats that Taisho hated so very much. Well, at least they had followed his important orders.

Quickly, he laid the still trembling Kikyo down; then slung Kouga down from his shoulder next to her. The woman looked like she would have been having some strong words with him had she been in any state to do such. Taisho thanked his lucky stars or whatever that she wasn't. "Miss Kikyo," he asked firmly, grabbing hold of her chin to make sure she was paying attention. "Are you alright?"

She swallowed thickly, and nodded.

Taisho grinned, and patted her head. "Wonderful," she commented, rising to his feet. "Listen carefully to what I'm going to tell you, alright?"

She only nodded again.

"Good. Now, Miss Kikyo, I have to leave for no more than a week understand. You and Kouga are to keep the company running while I'm gone. Any clients give you a hard time, bully them right back. Any employees act up, fire them. Understand?"

She swallowed again, still nodding.

Inwardly, Taisho cursed. Why did Sesshoumaru have to come _now_, of all times, when all of his plotting was coming together? He had scared the shit out of Kikyo, and now only half of words were sinking in, and he needed her alert, dammit.

"Kikyo, this is important. When I get back, life is going to start moving very fast for just about everybody, understand. Take this time, get yourself back together, and make sure that when Kouga wakes up he gets himself taken care of."

She was just constantly nodding now, barely registering a thing. Taisho rolled his eyes, and stood up, kicking Kouga's limp body as he did so. "Kouga," he said out loud, just because he guessed it would be more use talking to the unconscious man. "Hold the fort down, and when I get back, have two guest bedrooms set up somewhere in the office, okay?"

No response, but then again, he hadn't expected one.

Taisho slowly turned, and walked towards the chopper, glancing at his two flunkies. Hiten, the taller and considerably more social of the two, saluted sharply. "Chopper ready, sir."

"I can see that," Taisho muttered wearily, casually hopping in the open door. "Hurry up and get me to the airport. We have a flight to catch, after all."

Hiten and Monten nodded eagerly to each other, and quickly hopped into the helicopter after their boss. It had been a long time since Taisho had given them a good job, and he had no doubt they were going to enjoy this one. Kidnapping _and _an assassination on the same day for a long while.

Taisho shrugged, as he felt the inertia pull him down into his seat. He _was _a businessman after all, and he _would _need to tie off some loose ends. Besides, from what he had seen of the detective work of Miss Sonada, she wouldn't be that greatly missed. Taisho casually sat back, and closed his eyes, plotting. Things were coming together nicely. Very, very nicely indeed.


	19. Backlit Conversations

Hey, there, folks. This was up in a slightly more timely manner than the previous chapter, just in time for the holidays and my birfday. Happy 19th to me, as of this friday, anywho. And happy thanksgiving to all of you, as well.

Anywho, a quick note on this chapter, there is absolutely no plot development here. I sort of threw it in in responce to a comment that someone would love to see the nightime conversations InuYasha and Kagome have everynight. So, here it is, some of the little drabbles they talk about at night. It's purely characterization. The next chatper, however, will bring plot advancement galore! Yay!

So, here it is, the next chapter of Hanyou. Enjoy. I know I had fun writng it. Heeee...

* * *

Kagome felt very, very silly as she slipped out of the bathroom, towel wrapped carefully around her. She had made it a policy to always take pajamas with her to the bathroom when she went for her evening shower. But today had been a rough day at school, and she had completely forgotten. Which meant she had to get changed. In her room. With InuYasha and his no good camera sitting there. _Watching_.

Of course, he could turn off his visual input anytime he wished, but Kagome could never be sure whether or not he actually _had_. Kagome dreaded being naked in her own room now, no thanks to him.

She walked down the hall, self consciously pulling at the towel like a too-short skirt, and gingerly hipped the door to her room open. "InuYasha," she murmured. "Eyes closed for a little while, m'kay?"

"Keh," was her response. She really hoped that meant he had turned off the camera. She made sure her towel was all in place, just in case InuYasha was feeling frisky enough to peek, and walked timidly in, moving her legs as little as possible to keep her makeshift garment from bunching up. InuYasha's sprite was sitting on the screen, casually juggling her 'my computer' folder with her 'Mozilla Firefox' icon, and doing an impressive job of it too. He was probably far to concentrated to even think of peeking. She inched carefully over to her drawer, and began rummaging though one for a decent pair of underwear to slip on. Then an idea hit her. Stealing a suspicious glance at InuYasha, who _still _didn't respond, she reached in for a very _different _pair of underwear, one the Terri had insisted she buy for _just _such an occasion. Kagome had never even put them on, but now they would come in handy now. She hooked one finger around them, and held them up over her shoulder coyly, eyes still on InuYasha.

The reaction was instantaneous. On the screen, InuYasha froze, blood starting to squirt freely from his nose, and strangled choking sounds came from her speakers. The two objects he was juggling landed on him.

Kagome whirled, although not _too _quickly (still thinking of the towel), and pointed an accusing finger at him, undergarment still hanging off of it. "Aha! You were peaking you little bastard."

InuYasha seemed not to be listening, however. "Kagome!" he half yelled, "what the hell are _those_?"

"These?" she asked, closing her fist around the black little thing. "Why don't you start by telling me why you didn't close your eyes?"

"That's not important!" InuYasha fumed, sputtering words out in small chunks. "Those are… black… stupid… Victoria's Secret… 'Come-over-here-and-fuck-me' panties! Why the crap do you even have those?"

Kagome's face clouded. "They're for you, if you must know."

And for a brief second, the only sound was that of a _very _awkward statement sinking into two teenage-maturity-level brains. And then the sound of InuYasha's nose starting to bleed again. Kagome, blushing madly, turned aside. "I mean… they're for when you peek, so I'll know if you really have your eyes closed or not."

Inuyasha's eyes narrowed, and he quickly rubbed the red from his face. "Not cool, Kagome!"

"Well it worked, didn't it?" she demanded. "Now close your eyes like a good boy."

With a snort and a muttered curse, InuYasha closed his eyes on the screen. Kagome's eyes narrowed, and she stalked a little closer to the computer. "Eyes closed, Inuyasha?"

"Yes…" he muttered sulkily.

Kagome nodded, and calmly slipped the panties over the camera, obscuring any and all view for the program. InuYasha exploded instantly, hurling oaths out faster than anything she had heard before. Eventually, when the storm had ceased, InuYasha returned to his normal, semi placid state of stalking around the screen. "Fine, wench," he growled. "You win."

Kagome sized him up, and smiled. She was pretty sure he was obeying. And even if he wasn't, she had gotten that specific black kind for a reason. He wasn't gonna be seeing through those, no sir.

But just in case, Kagome got dressed faster than she ever had before in her life. Just in case.

As soon as she was done, and safely in her PJs, she snatched the too-sultry undergarment off the camera, and tossed it aside. InuYasha didn't react.

"You can open your eyes now, InuYasha."

The program looked suspicious. "Is that damn creepy thing gone yet?"

"It took it off…"

There was a sigh of relief. "Good," he growled. "Never do that again, okay?"

Kagome have him a haughty look, and crossed her arms over her flannel night shirt. "Well next time don't peek, and we won't have this problem."

InuYasha's face scrunched up. "Well next time don't peek, and we won't have a problem." He said it in a perfect imitation of her voice, and yet managed it to sound mocking at the same time. "Keh, wench. You make it sound like I had killed someone."

"I might kill _you_," Kagome threatened bluntly.

InuYasha let out a little _feh_ and turned away, pouting.

Kagome made an angry scowl, but it quickly faded to a fond little smile. His ears were twitching, which meant he was only a little angry, and _how _was she supposed to stay annoyed at a pair of twitching ears?

A long hard yawn caught her completely off guard, and she had no choice but to obey its call. "Alright, InuYasha, I'm going to bed."

"Keh…"

"G'night to you too, boy," She muttered, smoothing out her blankets before slipping slowly under them. _Damn_, blankets were a wonderful invention. Not much felt better, after a long day, than snuggling down in-between a nice pair of sheets and relaxing.

"Light off, InuYasha?"

His monitor obligingly shut down.

"Thanks…"

And then a long, long time of not-quite sleep fell down, and Kagome almost drifted off. Until, somewhere in the fog of sleep, a goofy little thought shone through. "Hey, InuYasha?"

"What is it now, wench?"

Both their voices were getting that dull edge that sleep brought on, now, and thoughts were starting to get incoherent as well.

"You know that nosebleed you got?"

There was a long, stunned silence, followed by an uncertain "Yeah?"

"What was that all about?"

More silence. "You don't know?"

"Should I?"

"I sorta thought it was common knowledge…" He was starting to sound a little embarrassed now.

"Is it?" she asked. "How come I don't know about it?"

"I dunno…" he grumbled. "It's a Japanese thing, I guess."

"Well, what does it mean?"

"Guh… erm…" InuYasha actually started stuttering. "Just… something stupid."

"Okay, but what?"

A long silence. The fan of Kagome's computer came on, which meant InuYasha was thinking hard. "Well… eh…" another long pause, and then the fan quit. "Keh! If you don't know, I don't see why I should have to explain it to you."

Another long pause. "Meanie..." Kagome cursed after a while.

"Go look it up if you're so desperate."

Kagome furrowed her eyebrows, and made a mental note to do just that. But then another thought hit her. "Hey, InuYasha, you were made in Japan, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"Why do you speak English, then?"

"Default setting…"

"Default setting?"

"S'right. I also come in French, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Mandarin, Pig-Latin, and Canadian, eh?"

"…eh?" Kagome giggled. "They actually gave you a Canadian setting?"

"You got a problem with that, eh?"

Kagome let out another giggle, and turned over. "And pig-latin, too?"

InuYasha chuckled, and spewed out about the fastest line of contorted syllables that Kagome had ever heard. It was, in fact, duly impressive. She even clapped feebly, under her blankets. "You speak Japanese too, right?"

"Hai…"

Another giggle was scored. "That's cool. Wish I could speak cool languages like that…"

"You don't speak other languages?"

She shrugged. "A little Spanish. But that's just high-school stuff."

"Oh… I would have thought-"

"I spoke Japanese?" she finished for him, rubbing a thumb across her forehead as she did so. "Yeah, the skin and the name throw people off. Dad was, you know. Japanese I mean. I tried to teach me, but I didn't wanna learn, and pretty soon after that the divorce came, and that was that."

"…uhm… Kagome I didn't…" InuYasha's voice faltered, attempting to speak around his own foot.

"Don't worry about it, InuYasha. It happened when I was, like, nine, so I'm pretty much over it."

"…Okay." But he didn't quite sound happy with that. "You… you still wanna learn Japanese?"

Kagome perked one eye open. "Yeah?"

InuYasha smirked. "Alright, then, I recon I could call up some of my old teaching protocols. Haven't used any of them, yet."

"You even have teaching protocols?"

"S'right. Now, you wanna learn, or not?"

Kagome hid lower under the covers. "Okay…"

"Good, now, repeat after me…"

"Good now repeat after me," Kagome dutifully repeated.

"Oh, ha, ha, wench. Like that's not the oldest trick in the…"

"Oh ha ha wench like that's not the oldest trick in the…"

"…"

"…"

"I'm a perverted little wench who buys dirty underwear just to give my poor Japanese instructor nosebleeds."

"You are, InuYasha? I didn't know!"

"Damn you…"

* * *

"Bed time!" Kagome declared loudly, stretching with one arm and scratching at a barely-exposed midriff with another.

InuYasha cracked an eye at her, and shook his head. "It's only ten? Why you going to bed so early."

Kagome shrugged. "English test, tomorrow," she grumbled. "On the Odyssey."

InuYasha winced involuntarily. "Ouch…" he grumbled, shaking his head. He had read that damn book, when Kagome had first mentioned it to him. Hadn't made a word of sense. Kagome seemed to understand it okay, but he still didn't envy her.

He'd let her get her sleep. For tonight, anyway…

"Fine then, wench…" he growled, shutting off his monitor before she could even ask. "You better do good on this test, though."

Kagome nodded, and casually flipped the light, plunging the room into darkness. As this happened, InuYasha turned off his camera as well, only leaving his ears open. He couldn't see in the dark with the stupid thing, anyway. "Night, Kagome…"

"Night InuYasha…"

And for only a short time that night, there was silence. "InuYasha?" Kagome murmured, a chuckle in her voice. "Could you turn on your monitor again?"

With a little grumble, he obliged, turning his camera on in the process as well. The room was illuminated in a cold, brittle glow; the only warmth was where his red cloak shone its translucent light on the floor. He could barely make out, in the world of bluish shadows, Kagome's face, comically hidden between mattress and quilt, one eye beaming merrily at him. "You know, I took your advice…"

He perked an eye open on the screen, crossing his arms. "_What_?"  
"I looked it up." Her eye crinkled. "The nosebleed…"

_Oh, shit_…

"You did?" he gasped, trying to keep his voice from squeaking. "You… didn't really, did you?"

"Interesting origin, really…" Kagome commented. "Did you know it started as an old wives tale in both China and Japan?"

Oh, damn… InuYasha was screwed. He knew it.

"Who would have thought of it, though?" she commented. "Nosebleeds, apparently, are a good sign that someone's getting a little guttery in the head…"

InuYasha winced, feeling the blush creep into his little avatar on the screen. He really wished he could turn his graphical portion off and on, or at least control it somewhat, but it seemed to react naturally to what he was thinking, whether he liked it or not. And right now it had an expression that was fear and embarrassment mixed. Kagome was going to kill him. Totally and utterly. They wouldn't even find the remaining scraps of code. He was boned.

"So, InuYasha…" Kagome began slyly. "What exactly were you thinking when I pulled that underwear out, huh?"

At a sudden and complete loss for words, InuYasha stuttered feebly for a moment before finally coming to rest on the tried and true 'keh.'

The eye narrowed, and she spoke again, but he couldn't tell if it was anger or amusement that was making her voice dance. "So, I'm cuter than you thought, I guess…"

_Cuter than he openly admitted_, InuYasha corrected mentally, but he sure as hell wasn't gonna let _that _slip out. "Don't try pinning perverted stuff on me, wench," he growled. "_You're _the one who pulled out the damn 'I like sex' lingerie. Any guys gonna go wonky after you pull something like that on him!"

Kagome was quite, and then let out a laugh. "You _are _a guy, aren't you?"

"Damn straight," he growled. "And then you had to go and make everything worse with the whole 'Oh, I got them for you' crap. It's all your fault."

"Oh really?" she asked slyly. "And what exactly did I make you think."

Well, _duh_, when she pulled out the damn thing she had made him think of her dropping the towel and putting it on. Of course, the focus of _that _thought had been much more on the dropping-the-towel part than on the putting-it-on part. And then the whole 'I got it for you' bit had only served to make him think of pulling it off again. In fact, just thinking about thinking about it was beginning to trigger of a little pervert grin on his face. He very quickly wiped his thoughts, and that expression, clean. After all, if Kagome saw it, he was in even more trouble.

"I'm waiting…" she drawled.

Waiting for what? Oh. Oh yeah… an answer. To her question. "I was… eh… I was thinking… keh!"

"You were thinking 'keh,' huh?" she giggled, eye narrowing in on his monitor. Was she actually _enjoying _watching him squirm? He wouldn't put it past her…

"Hey, InuYasha?"

"Don't ask it again, wench," the program growled.

"I was just gonna say… You're a guy, right?"

InuYasha was a little apprehensive of this one topic, too. It was still a little too close to home for his tastes. "Yeah?"

"So… what exactly have you seen, huh?"

_What the crap? _Why the hell was she asking him all this? These had to be the stupidest questions _ever_. Did she enjoy embarrassing him? "The hell so you mean 'what have I seen?"

She pulled the quilt back from her head, revealing a near-naughtily grinning face hiding behind a messy hank of hair. "C'mon, InuYasha. You're living in a girl's room. I've been cautious and all that, but there have definitely been some times when I've changed in here, right? So… what have you seen?"

….

InuYasha wanted to plead the fifth, but he somehow got the impression that that wouldn't bee the best of ideas. Of course, the absolute _worst _of ideas would be to lie to her. InuYasha wasn't a good liar, and he knew it. Trying to say something false would just turn ugly. But then again, the much, much _worse _idea would be telling the whole truth. Best to just be vague.

"A little…" he muttered, shrugging.

One of Kagome's eyebrows shot up, and she sat up just a little in bed, the shadows playing eerily off the soft folds curves of her face and sharp folds of her pajamas. "A little?" she asked, near playfully.

InuYasha shrugged. "S'not like I'm stalking you, or anything. I don't even have my camera turned on half the time you think I do."

She smiled at the camera, contemplating. "Do you have it turned on now?"

For a brief, almost insane moment, InuYasha considered telling her he didn't, just to see what she would do. But he wasn't sure he would like himself as much afterward, if he did, and it probably wouldn't work anyway. "Yeah…"

She grinned a happy little grin, leaning against her pillow. "Right…" she murmured. "So, you haven't seen me in anything less than underwear, then?"

Dammit! Why did she have to ask so bluntly? "Uhm…"

"Aha!" she grinned viciously, eyes burning. "Then you _have _peeked."

"Wouldn't call it 'peeking,'" InuYasha grumbled. "I wake up one morning and your just sitting there getting dressed, whining about how you overslept. Not my fault you didn't go to the bathroom."

"It is you're fault for not turning off your camera, though," she snooted, crossing her arms. "You're just a little voyeur, that's what you are."

_No shit, Sherlock…_ He had woken up to Kagome being in the middle of her room, still braless from sleep, frantically scurrying through a pile of clothes for something to wear. What was he supposed to have done, except watch?

Well, _obviously_ he should have shut of the camera then and there, but then again, Kagome was topless. And even the program had to admit that she wasn't bad to look at. So he had just gone ahead and watched anyway. He hadn't been overly happy with himself afterwards, but he _had _watched.

But now that he was caught, he might should apologize. But he wasn't about to let one of those cross his mouth. Instead, he mustered up a half hearted 'keh,' and left it at that.

Kagome actually giggled at that, and shook her head. "So, just that once. I know I've changed in here more than that? Anything else I should know about?"

InuYasha shook his head. "After that, I started shutting off my camera when I thought you were gonna change."

"Except for last night, right?"

InuYasha winced. _Ouch_… "I was gonna close my eyes when you dropped the towel." He was gonna try to, anyway. The image of that one morning had been on his mind a bit more heavily than normal as of late, and the traitorous little part of him that wanted to see it again had been acting up again. In fact, that stupid little part was the reason he hadn't just shut off his camera the second she had said 'eyes shut' before coming in. Stupid little voice. Look at all the trouble it had caused.

Kagome gave him a curious look. "Why?" she murmured. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I appreciate the sentiment, but if you had the chance to…" for the first time that night, she had a little blush on her face. "…to just watch me, why wouldn't you?"

Shrugging subtly, InuYasha thought about that for a moment. It was a sadly good question. Why would it bother him so much when he peeked in on Kagome. There was the guilt, if you could even call it that, he supposed. The little quibbling knowledge that according to something he didn't quite understand but knew to be true, he shouldn't be looking so unashamedly. But then again, that little prick of guilt was almost nonexistent, and certainly not enough to stop him from a good show. No, he was pretty sure that it was something else.

"I dunno," he answered finally, shrugging again. "You _want _I should just look at you like I'd look at a steak?"

Kagome scowled. "Of course not, but-"

"Well there you go," he muttered.

Giving her monitor an odd look, Kagome cocked her head to the side. "Wha?"

InuYasha spat. "I'm not the stupid kind of bastard that would ignore what you want to just get an eyeful, okay?"

Kagome blinked for a moment, and looked for a moment like she was going to say something. But she must have thought better of it, and instead sent him a smile that he found different to interpret. It seemed almost... fond, but there was definitely something else there that he couldn't quite place.

She shivered suddenly, and almost instantly retreated under the blankets, once again reducing herself to a hank of hair and a pair of peeping eyes. "I need to get some sleep, InuYasha," she reprimanded, more to herself than to the program. "I shouldn't be talking this late."

InuYasha chuckled. "You're the one who started it, baka…" That had been one of the first Japanese words he had taught her last night. She seemed to like it.

"You're a baka…" she growled back, voice getting sleepy. "But now I'm going to bed."

InuYasha nodded slowly, thanking whoever there was to thank that he had made it out of the conversation at hand alive. "Get some sleep, wench," he muttered, turning off his monitor, again plunging the room into darkness.

"Hey, InuYasha?" Kagome murmured sleepily. "Mind keeping that on?"

After a moment, the monitor grudgingly flickered on again. "You really don't wanna get any sleep, do you, wench?"

Kagome graced him with her soft smile one last time, and shook her head. "I just like the computer light, you know? It's… nice."

Here eyes remained heavy lidded but open for a long time, barely visible in the grey shadows, until they finally closed, and her breath evened into the land of nod.

* * *

The door to Kagome's room closed with a slam, and the girl herself slid wearily down the hard wood surface until she was sitting flat on her bum, staring up at her computer. InuYasha, on the screen, looked frazzled, but satisfied.

"That girl has got to have some hyperactivity problems…" he muttered, shaking his head.

Kagome nodded. It was true, after all. Terri had never been on Ritalin, or anything of the sort, but the girl _did _seem to have a near unlimited supply of energy. It didn't normally get her into any trouble, but it did lead to a sudden pile-driver on Kagome every once in a while. The wrestling matches (or in Kagome's case, desperate fights for survival) that ensued were tiring and often left the shorter girl far to exhausted to be annoyed at her friend's antics. Kagome banged her head lightly against the door, feeling at her barely coherent muscles one at a time. Okay, her arms worked. How about the fingers? The ones on the left hand could wiggle a little, but the right were still numb. Same for her toes, except the other way around. She assumed that, because she could feel some of those toes, her legs were still connecting them with the rest of her body, but she couldn't tell for sure.

InuYasha looked pretty frazzled himself, even though the most he had done throughout the battle had been to cheer. Oddly enough, he seemed to be more of a foul-weather fan than anything else, cheering for whomever happened to be the underdog at the time. He rooted for Kagome. A lot. Terri had, in fact, only gotten one cheer from him. She had used it as an opportunity to demand a viewing of his code, while suddenly locking Kagome into a particularly painful full-nelson.

With a little whimper and a moan as she struggled feebly to get up, she gasped out, "InuYasha, what time is it?"

The program shrugged. "Past midnight, already."

"Damn…" Kagome swore blatantly, struggling to her feet, wincing as the pain strung from her back out to the rest of her body. Why did Terri always have to go so rough, anyway? It's not like Kagome had an exactly athletic physique, anyway. She was more… well rounded. Literally, she thought as she poked softly at her belly. The soft surface certainly wasn't pudgy by any means, but it was lacking that sheer flat surface that Terri had. Of course, Terri had that sheer flat surface continuing all the way up to her neck. Kagome, at least, could say that she was filled out a little more than her friend on top, even if she wasn't as skinny.

"Oi, wench," InuYasha growled. "If you're that sleepy, then stop feeling yourself up and get to bed."

Kagome felt her hands leap away from her tummy instantly, and a slow blush wiggle its way onto her face. "Sorry," she grumbled, staggering to her feet, and flicking the lights as she did so.

"No shower tonight, wench? You look like you could use one."

Kagome shook her head. "Too tired. Need sleep."

InuYasha raised an eyebrow, and simply chuckled. "Whatever, wench. You want the monitor off?"

Kagome shook her head. "It was nice, last night," she murmured. "Leave it on."

It _had _been nice, last night, after all. Sort of like the same feeling you got when you were a kid and your mom left the hall light on, just so you'd have that one little sliver of light to hold onto in the dark. It was comforting.

"Whatever, wench." He growled.

Kagome dawdled to her bed, and collapsed onto it, barely managing to pull the covers over her body. "G'night, InuYasha," she murmured, suddenly glad that she was so very tired. She really didn't want to talk to him tonight. They might have another version of last night's conversation. And she wasn't sure she could handle that. She had spent most of the day today blushing and daydreaming. Even Terri had noticed, and drawn the entire thing out of her. And had promptly made fun of her every period, until school let out. At least she had had the decency to shut up when they were around InuYasha.

Of course, Kagome deserved to be mocked for what she had done. What had she been _thinking_? She had been flirting like mad last night, and with a _computer_ _program_ no less. Well, no, he was more than a computer program, definitely, but it still felt freaking weird. Hell, she had been practically giving him an open invitation to think like a pervert. She had been _trying _to get him to think like a pervert. She hadn't ever done _that _to a guy before.

And then he had to go and say that goddamn line. The whole 'I'm not a perverted bastard' thing. What was she supposed to say to that?

Yeah, it was definitely better if she just didn't talk tonight. She wouldn't know what to say, and would probably die of embarrassment. She would just have to calm herself down, and go to sleep. She relaxed softly, and glanced over at InuYasha's monitor. He was sitting on her start menu, cross legged and hunched over, looking almost asleep. The only thing that gave him away was the slit of gold peaking out of one eye, and the slight grin on his face. From the look on his face, he was off in some distant land of his own thoughts, not in the same room as Kagome.

His grin widened slightly.

And a bit of blood dripped form his nose.

Instantly, Kagome rolled over in bed, blushing again. On second thought, glancing at the monitor had been a bad idea. Kagome was gonna have a bit more trouble getting to sleep now. She bit her lip, and shrugged. Was he thinking about her, just now? That was what had really started things last night. Kagome had found out what the Asian connotation of the nosebleed meant, she had been… flattered. More than just a little. Kagome hadn't had a boy friend, ever. Either she had been too young, or too close with Terri, both of which tended to frighten off boys. In fact, Kagome had never even really had more than a great many lecherous stares from some school boys, which were only to be expected.

But InuYasha's first nosebleed… there hadn't been a single question about what that had been about. He was definitely thinking about Kagome. And that was, to her at least, a little flattering. Somewhat degrading too, yes, but flattering.

It was weird, but she had always sort of thought of Terri as the one who got all those kinds of thoughts. Not that Kagome had an inferiority complex, or anything, but Terri just had a face that said 'think dirty thoughts about me,' and seemed to enjoy it just fine. Besides a few glances, Kagome was used to being by and by large overlooked. But now…

"Hey, InuYasha?" she heard her voice ask without even thinking. "What do you think of Terri?"

There was a pause, and then a sleepy "Wha?"

"You know, Terri… What do you think of her?"

"That psycho? She's a pervert."

"I know that," Kagome grumped. "But, I mean, what do you think of her besides that?"

InuYasha was silent for a shot time more. "She… shit, I don't wanna say it, but…"

"Say what?"

"She acts like a guy," he murmured after a little while. "I mean, she just _attacked _you, for fun. That's not normal girl behavior."

Kagome scowled momentarily. Well, it _did _sound like he had a pretty good grasp on Terri's character, but Kagome was going for something a bit more superficial. She was hoping that InuYasha would respond the way she wanted without her having to ask, but it seemed he was a little too thoughtful for that. She would just have to go for it.

"Do you think that she's cute?"

She turned back in time to get InuYasha's reaction to this, blinking, then shrugging in confusion. "Maybe?" he mused, scratching at his head. "Never really thought about it."

"C'mon, you said you were a guy, right? As a guy, is Terri cute?"

InuYasha seemed to pause. "Well, she's got a nice face," he muttered with a shrug. "The eyes help, I guess…"

He wasn't sounding enthusiastic about it. Apparently, Terri's seductive beauty hadn't captivated him. "Is there someone you think is cuter?"

There was a long silence, and then a low, rough chuckle.

"_What_?" Kagome demanded, slightly offended. It was a serious question after all.

"I'm sorry, but you sound like you're trying to be subtle."

Kagome was truly affronted. "Subtle? And what exactly would I need to subtle about, huh?"

InuYasha crossed his arms, and spat. "You wanna know if I think you're cuter than Terri?"

_Damn_. Well, okay, the attempt was kinda transparent, she supposed. But he didn't have to say it so bluntly… "Yeah, okay, I do," she huffed, turning over and hunching the covers up.

"Alright, then," InuYasha muttered sarcastically. "Honestly, out of the whole three people I've actually seen in the world, you are the cutest."

Kagome scowled under her blankets. That really didn't sound like a compliment to her. "Who's number three?"

InuYasha shrugged, sudden humor in his voice. "I dunno. Terri and Taisho both sorta tie for second."

Kagome failed miserably to stifle her sudden giggles, and she rolled over in bed, glaring at the computer harshly. "You are a total, unbelievable goof, you know that?"

InuYasha nodded peacefully. "You'd better not scowl too much, wench, or Taisho'll sneak up and take the lead."

Kagome's pillow hit the monitor with a light _biff_, and then slowly to the ground. "Bastard…" she grumbled. "Now look. I have to go get that."

"You're fault, wench," he leered at her, crossing his arms. "If I had arms, I _might _give it back if you apologized for throwing it in the first place."

Kagome scowled, and slowly rolled out of bed, rising to her too-sore feet, and taking a few staggering steps towards the fallen bag of fluff. As she walked, InuYasha's satisfied smirk slowly softened to a genuine smile.

"Seriously, though, not bad."

Kagome lifted the pillow, and tucked it under her chin, glaring at him suspiciously. "Hmm?"

InuYasha shrugged. "I don't have much to compare you to, but you look… _nice_."

Kagome stared for a moment, lips parting slightly open. Then she clasped the pillow a little closer, and bobbed her head to him. "Arigato."

InuYasha rolled his eyes. "I'm regretting teaching you already," he grumbled. "Go to sleep, Kagome."

Kagome rolled her eyes. "Fine," she muttered, and waddled back towards her bed. She collapsed and struggled feebly under her blankets once more. "G'night, InuYasha…"

"Night, Kagome…"

"Oh, and InuYasha?" she mumbled sleepily.

"Yeah?"

"You know, I'm not really a judge, but for a computer, you're pretty damn sexy too."

There was a long, awkward silence. "Go to bed, wench."

Like that was gonna happen now. No way she was getting to sleep anytime soon, with all the crap running through her head. So, instead, she did the next best thing. She turned over, casually enjoying InuYasha's glow on her face and pretended instead.


	20. Drawing Together

Hey, there, faithful readers.

Well, I assume your faithful, because you'd have to be after I didn't update for over a month. Sorry for the delay, but I'm a little more put together now.

The only announcement I have for here is that this will be my last 'in chapter' comment. I have taken advantage of the little forum option that has recently employed, and created one of my own (you can access it through my profile). I will, from here on out, accompany each posted chapter with a post on that forum, giving some authors notes. Also, this will hopefully allow me to interact with you guysos a bit more, and answer some questions interactively.

Thank you very much, and see the forum for a few more comments.

Haffa nice day!

* * *

Sango Sonada leaned against the brick wall of a local bar, cigarette held in her mouth loosely, and hands shoved deep into her pockets. She had let her hair out of its normal pony tail, and let it fall around her leather wrapped shoulders. The trench coat she wore draped around her ankles, and obscured most of her black clad body from view.

She took a quick drag from the smoke, and puffed it out again. Her nerves were up this week. More than they should have been, anyway. She had been… nigh unto _forced _to continue playing the fool around the Terri girl. Of course, she had played right along, and must have dismissed Sango as a friendly but bumbling cop.

Well, that was _her _mistake. And by the end of the day, she would be in handcuffs for underestimating Sango Sonada.

Of course, the only real regret that Sango had about the whole business was Terri's shy little friend, Kagome. She seemed so very nice, but the two of them were inseparable. No doubt she would be heartbroken to learn that her best friend was a criminal. Sango felt a little guilty about that, she admitted, especially when Kagome seemed to very innocent and naïve.

Well, Sango supposed, everyone had to grow up and learn about the real world sometime. Today would be Miss Higurashi's time.

It would be time if that damn Houshi would give her a call, anyway.

As she leaned, a few high school brats wandered past, a few of them glancing at her as they went. She took another drag of her cigarette, and glared at them in a mostly disinterested but ever-so-slightly unfriendly way.

One of them, a girl, raised an eyebrow, and then broke into a bought of helpless titters. The others glanced Sango's way, and followed suit, walking casually away, as if she didn't exist.

Sango bristled inwardly, the cigarette crushing helplessly beneath a sudden, angry grip. What the _hell_! They were laughing at _her_? She looked _cool_, dammit. She had gone out for the all black ensemble and everything. She had sunglasses and was leaning against the wall smoking and looking like she didn't care and _everything_.

So what the hell were they doing laughing at her? She looked exactly like a detective was supposed to look. She looked cool. They shouldn't be laughing.

With a grumpy rumble, she pulled the trench coat down to her elbows, allowing the rest of her torso (clad in a _very _wicked matching black halter-top, she might add) some cool air. Why was it that all the best styles were always so damn uncomfortable?

With another frustrated growl, she pulled the coat all the way off, and shouldered it. Like hell she was gonna wear the thing if nobody else appreciated it. She lost the cigarette too, dropping it to the floor and crushing it beneath a heel. She had started about a year ago, when she had joined the force out of college. Hadn't quite managed the whole quitting part, yet, but she didn't really care. She thought it really brought her whole outfit together.

Well, it would have if kids today had any taste, anyway. Stupid kids. Laughing at her. Where did they get off like that, anyway, with all their skimpy skirts and see-through blouses? Damn kids.

Blissfully unaware that her twenty three year old mind was beginning to think thoughts far more suited to a seventy year old, Sango leaned against the wall again and began to catalogue in her mind _exactly_ what was wrong with this younger generation.

Eventually thoughts along those lines faded, and were replaced by others, of a more… fanciful nature. Her lips slowly twitched up into a grin as

_Inspector Sonada, trench coat swirling behind her, cunningly stalked down the dark ally. Her target was somewhere here. And it was Sonada's job to find it. _

_Her keen instincts guided her to a single door, a musty one on the left, and with a sudden ferocious kick of her boot, the heavy wood burst inward. The smell of corruption was palpable against her nostrils, and the lighting within was just dim enough to obscure the dangers Inspector Sonada knew lay within. _

_But that didn't stop her. She wasn't afraid of anything. She dashed in, reaching into her trench coat and whipping out a magnum in each hand. Sweeping both guns across the room, taking stock of the filthy inhabitants of the room, she could see within seconds that these were the criminals she was looking for. Grinning to herself, she opened her mouth and said: _

"_Party's over boys, I'm taking you in!" _

Wait. No.

Sango's eyes narrowed, as she idly gnawed a thumbnail. That seemed kinda corny. Maybe she could say…

"_I've got a warrant to kick your asses, boys!" _

…

No, still a little hokey.

"_Sorry I'm late gentlemen, but now I'm here and you're all busted." _

Sango's lips curled in satisfaction. That was a little better.

"_Sorry I'm late, gentlemen," Inspector Sonada said, voice practically oozing satisfaction, "But now I'm here and your all busted." _

_The action was instantaneous! All the men in the room instantly grabbed any weapon handy and started attacking! Sango shot one, then another, then back flipped to the other side of the room and-_

The ringing of her cell phone interrupted the fantasy before it could get any better, and snapped her from her reverie.

With a grumbling snort, she grabbed the appliance and lifted it to an ear. "Yeah?"

"Milady Sango," greeted her cheerfully, and she rolled her eyes. She had been waiting for this call all day, but she certainly hadn't been wanting it to come in the middle of one of her best little think-sessions. She had been about to kick some major ass right then. Oh well. She would just have to remember it for another time, and write about the imaginary encounter when she had some off time.

"What is it, Houshi?" she demanded impatiently. "Did you get everything taken care of?"

"I'm afraid so, Milady Sango," Houshi replied, but his voice lacked the normal refined charm it normally had. Something was definitely wrong.

"Your _afraid _so?"

"This has been a very… _trying _week for me, milady," Houshi replied. "There had been several business complications applied to me, compounded by some long standing… medical difficulties, and I am very tired, milady."

Damn. He certainly sounded it. Hell, he sounded like he was about to conk out right then and there. "You gonna be okay, Houshi?" she asked, a little surprised by the concern in her own voice. Interesting how attached you could get to a guy you've never met.

"I will be fine, lady Sango, but your concern deeply touches me." Sango smiled. That had had a little more of the old charm she knew and found annoying. "However, Sango, I think this day might be a long one for you as well. Tell me, do you have a vehicle?"

Sango's eyes narrowed. What was this all of a sudden? "If I really need one, yeah, but gas is expensive and I don't really have an official employer yet, so…"

"Money will be of no problem, lady Sango. I simply wish for you to have a car handy when the time comes."

"When the time comes for what?"

There was a short pause. "You are quite sure you have the right person, Sango?"

"Yeah…" she murmured. "No questions about it, with the info you gave me."

"Yes, then, I need you to get the suspect in a position where you are near your car by eleven AM, and then make the arrest, lady Sango."

Sango blinked, and glanced down at her wristwatch. It was ten o clock. That was only an hour to work in. "Are you sure, Houshi?"

"Very. And make sure your watch is accurate. _Very _accurate, Sango. It is currently ten o six and twenty seven second, counting up. Make absolutely positive that your watch is within five seconds of that time."

.Sango grimaced in confusion. "Why the sudden focus on time, Houshi."

"Because you need to make the arrest at _exactly_ eleven. Trust me on this, Sango. There is someone in town today that you do _not _want to displease, and both he and I are very… punctual."

She didn't like the sense of finality attached to that last word. She didn't like it at all. She began setting her watch. "How many seconds again?"

"It is ten o seven and seven seconds, lady Sango."

Quickly, Sango finished ensuring her watch was accurate, and nodded. "And I make the arrest at eleven?"

"Eleven sharp, understood?"

"Gotcha, Houshi."

"Very good. I'm afraid I have to go now, Miss Sango, and take care of a great many things."

"Okay," Sango murmured, slowly getting up and starting to walk to her car, down the street.

"And Miss Sango?"

"Yeah?"

"Do be careful."

"…yeah…"

And Houshi hung up, leaving Sango feeling quite a bit less comfortable than she was ten minutes before.

Well, she had things to do, and very little time to do them in. She once again pulled her trench coat back on, despite it being far too hot, and ruffled the collar into style. This was her first arrest as a private eye, and she was sure as hell gonna look cool for it.

* * *

It was a commonly known law of physics that Saturdays were either extremely busy and didn't last anywhere near as long as they should, or they were indecently boring, and tended to creep by slower than a snail race.

Kagome Higurashi was very bored. She would have killed to be able to watch a snail race right now.

It was one of those too-hot-to-do-anything-physically-demanding type days, and school had been beastly enough that week to ensure that anything mentally taxing was totally out of the picture.

The end result was that Kagome and Terri lay, sweating and panting and sprawling in the most awkward but heat resistant poses possible, tying pathetically to ignore the occasional jibe from InuYasha. But then again, even he was drained too, so his loud mouth antics didn't have near the spice that they normally did. He had settled, for the last few comments, to simply hold himself to 'your-mom-(insert insult here)' style jokes, which Kagome only found mildly irritating.

But, then again, Kagome would allow him to have a little tiredness. He had been… surprisingly thoughtful over this past week. He had taken to reading a couple novels every once in a while. Apparently, he had caught on that Kagome herself was somewhat of an English nut, and had taken an interest himself. It was kinda pleasant to have someone to have intelligent literary conversations with, for once, as opposed to Terri, who normally limited herself to, well, nothing that didn't have someone being messily disemboweled by a savage monster every other page. She had read a lot of Steven King.

InuYasha had also spent a decent amount of time looking up this and that Japanese website she could practice with. He turned out to be a surprisingly adequate teacher, exercising patience that Kagome hadn't known him to have, and certainly wouldn't have expected had she met him on the street.

That thought, had, of course, given her a bit of pause. Meeting InuYasha on the street. We'll certainly if she had met a talking computer on the streets our first concern would not have been whether or not it was a very good teacher. In all likelihood she would have run away screaming. Or stolen it for herself. Depending on if anyone was around to watch her.

_But_, the simple fact that she had even thought about meeting InuYasha on street corner intrigued her. What exactly would it be like, if they were just strangers meeting on the street, and he had just been a normal guy? With a mild grimace, she remembered his first words to her: a sly compliment on some of her more… physical aspects. Odds were that if they were strangers meeting on the street, she would have slapped him in five minutes and walked away, never to see him again. Funny how that worked sometimes.

"Oi, Kagome…"

Breaking from her thoughts, Kagome cast a glance at InuYasha's monitor. She was half falling off of her bed with her head resting firmly on the floor, so everything was tinted a distinct shade of upside-down, but she was pretty sure she could make out his bored expression. "Yeah, InuYasha?"

"There's nothing to do around here…" he whined.

"Tell me about it…"

"Yo ho ho, a pirate's life for me," Terri added helpfully from where she was draped, like a broken doll, across one of Kagome's chairs.

Kagome nodded patiently. "Any other suggestions?"

"We _could _watch Pirates of the Caribbean… Shouldn't take me too long to download a copy…"

"Already have it," Kagome muttered. "Watched it enough to kill any normal person. Not interested."

InuYasha let out a long drawn out sigh. "Well, then, I suppose we could always revert to Starcraft."

Kagome let out a long, drawn out _pfft_, and collapsed the rest of the way out of the bed, returning the world to it's rightful rightside-up order, and giving herself the worlds largest head rush in the process. "Don't wanna play starcraft," she grumbled.

"Halo?" Terri muttered, still not moving.

"Too much concentration to play well," InuYasha dismissed. "Cards?"

"You always cheat at cards..."

"Not my fault I can see everything on the monitor. I was made that way."

"You know, I bet I could change that if you let me see your code…"

"_No_!"

Kagome rolled her eyes, preparing for the worst as the conversation slid downhill. Luckily, though, she was saved by a knock at the door.

She quickly stumbled to her feet, and glared at InuYasha. The AI obligingly pulled up the start menu, and hid behind it. Things might not go over so well if mom found out she had a digital boy living in her room. Kagome had spent quite a bit of time convincing her that computer monitors were not, in fact, run by small demons, and revealing the fact that Kagome's computer _was_, in fact, run by a demon of sorts wouldn't really help the situation.

She crept to the door, and opened it cautiously. Mom was standing right outside, but she had a very puzzled frown on her face. Kagome opened the door fully, and greeted her with a happy smile. "Yeah, Mom?"

"Kagome, dear, you and Terri have a… visitor," she murmured, and even her voice sounded troubled. What was up with her?

Mrs. Higurashi nodded down the hall, and stepped aside as the visitor came into view. _Then _Kagome understood her mother's strange behavior. Instantly, she forced a pleasant smile out of her face.

"Hi, there, Kagome," Inspector Sonada beamed back. "I don't suppose Terri's in there with you, is she?"

Kagome slowly nodded, and turned aside, praying that InuYasha had the brain power to stay hidden. "Hey, Terri?" she murmured.

Terri picked her head up (using both hands to do so), and turned it toward the door. "Yeah, Kags?"

"We have visitor…" she grinned nervously, moving to the side a little to offer her friend a view of their mutual problem.

One of Terri's thin eyebrows shot up, and she sighed wearily. With a few jerky movements, she pulled out of the awkward pose she was in and fell in a heap on the ground. Joints cracking as she made the long, terrible way to her feet, she managed out a groaned: "What can we do for you, Inspector?"

Sango smiled a friendly, but stupid, smile, and turned apologetically towards Mrs. Higurashi. "I'm afraid I need some help," she said, the hold of her lips becoming more forced as Terri reached her full height, and kept going, beginning to bend backwards, her spine eliciting painful little snaps and pops all the way. "You see," she pressed on, "I've never been real techno-driven, and my case requires me to do some" - she shuddered as Terri came back up with one last sickening _crunch_ – "online research. So, I was wondering if you could give me some tips."

Terri looked at the detective for a very short while, then turned towards Kagome. "What do you think? We have any plans this afternoon?"

Kagome knew what Terri was asking, and quickly weighed the risks. On one hand, Sango could actually be asking for help, in which case it would undoubtedly be best to 'help' her. Her and Terri could lead Sango around by the nose for hours, before finally pointing her in the completely wrong direction. Plus they could learn more and more about what specifically Sango knew about them, and even better, her employer, and the more Kagome knew about Taisho, they happier she was.

But then again, Sango could be playing them, and it could all be a trap. Maybe she was smarter than she let on.

Then Kagome glanced at the detective, and, as usual, had to cough back a laugh. Good god, she looked so _stupid_. What kind of self respecting person dressed like she was Trinity from the _Matrix_? It was just… pathetic. Kagome could even see the top of a pair sunglasses sticking out of one of Sango's pockets. How on earth was she supposed to take 'Inspector Sonada' seriously when the woman couldn't even dress herself? No, Sonada was just a fool. No threat at all.

Kagome grinned knowingly at Terri, and nodded. "I don't think we have anything to do this afternoon…"

The inspector paused, if only for a moment. "We? As in… both of you?"

Kagome paused a moment. She wanted Terri by herself? That was a little… weird.

"Well, yeah," Terri nodded, picking up for her slack. "I mean, me and Kagome are a team. If you want me to help you, I can't work without her."

Sango bobbed her head nervously. "Well, I suppose if it's alright with Mrs. Higurashi…" she muttered, turning towards Kagome's mother.

Mrs. Higurashi eyed Sango suspiciously, and then shifted to Kagome. "My daughter's not in any… trouble, is she?"

Sango's gin widened reassuringly. "No, no, of course not. I just need her help to get someone who _is _in trouble. She'll be doing a great service to our justice system."

Mrs. Higurashi didn't look totally convinced, but was apparently appeased enough, because she let out a very slow nod to Kagome. "Try and be back before dinner, okay?"

Kagome nodded happily, ginning to Terri as she did so. They would be able to dance circles around their foolish detective in an hour, and be well on their way by then. "Sure, Mom. Just lemmee fiddle with something on my computer first, and then we'll be ready to go."

She politely nodded, and then shut the door quietly. Quickly, with a mild precautionary glance at Terri, she strode over to InuYasha. He slowly peaked suspiciously out from behind one the start menu, and snorted. "That better not have been who I think it was…" he growled.

Kagome shrugged. "It was," she confirmed. "We're gonna go 'help he on her case.'"

InuYasha let out a low rumble. "I don't think so, wench…"

Her brow knit. "Why not?"

The program gaped at her, astonished. "_Why not? _Gee, Kagome, I dunno. Why wouldn't you want to walk a long distance with someone who might very well be trying to kill you? No fuckin way, Kagome."

"InuYasha, she doesn't suspect a thing. She's a total moron. She wants us to 'help her find the criminal.' Well go over to wherever she works, lead her around in circles for a little while, and then leave her even more confused than when she came. After that, I can promise she'll never bother us again."

InuYasha's eyes narrowed. "Kagome, you're being a dumbass."

Kagome bristled. "How so?"

"Think about it, dammit. This woman is a _detective_. How many of them do you know would turn towards civilian high school girls for help? And you think it's just a coincidence that the two high school girls she picks are actually the one's she's looking for? God-dammit, Kagome, this is _not right_, and you know it. You're walking right into something here."

Kagome crossed her arms. "InuYasha, if this were any normal detective, you'd be right. But this is _inspector Sonada_ we're talking about here. She'd pull out a magnifying glass and follow her own muddy footstep in circles for an hour if she thought it would make her look more dramatic. She doesn't know the first thing about real detective work."

InuYasha shrugged. "But she's getting help from _somewhere_, Kagome. She actually found you two. Even if she doesn't know it's you (which, by the way, I don't believe for a second), she's in the area. If she really is as harmless as you insist she is, then Taisho prolly has someone telling her what to do."

"Then why hasn't she busted us yet? She's had plenty of opportunity."

"I don't know, but that doesn't mean she couldn't get you now? You're going to a place to be _alone _with her, Kagome. Do you really think that's smart?"

"I think, InuYasha, that we can get Sonada off our backs for good, this time. I know we can do it, okay?"

"Like shit you know. You're just grasping at straws."

Kagome's eyebrows furrowed even more. "Listen, InuYasha, I know what I'm doing here, so don't try and stop me. I'll be fine." She turned back to Terri, and shrugged apologetically. "Inspector Sonada's probably waiting for us. We should go."

Terri nodded happily, and let Kagome pass her on the way out of the room. As she made her own way out, she turned back and winked at the monitor. "I think you worry too much. Sonada is pretty dumb." She paused a moment. "But, if things turn south, I'll make sure she's fine, InuYasha."

From the computer, the AI nodded slowly. "Thanks. Be careful."

Terri smiled, reached into the front of her too-baggy jeans, and drew out a fairly practical looking street knife. "Don't worry about it. I'm a little more practical that Kagome is."

"Glad s_omeone's_ thinking…" InuYasha murmured. "Take care of her."

"I'll make sure of it."

* * *

10:58:27

10:58:28

10:58:29

"So, where's this place again?"

Sango looked up from her watch, and swallowed nervously. Her car was parked about a block away, and they were fast approaching it. It was a fairly abandoned street, which was good. Things might get awkward otherwise. "About a block further."

10:58:45

10:58:46

"So," Kagome murmured happily from Sango's left. "What exactly are we gonna be helping you with?"

10:58:59

10:59:00

"Hey, Inspector Sonada, is your watch broken?"

Sango darted her head up again, to glance at Terri, who was eyeing her curiously. "No. Uh, why do you ask?"

"Well, you're staring at it constantly. Have been for the past block."

Sango nodded. "Yeah, umm… right…"

"And I really don't see why we had to walk, anyway."

"Well, my car is…" she glanced down at her watch again.

10:59:26

10:59:27

"Uhh… my car is… broke down…"

"Inspector Sonada… where are we going, exactly?" Terri asked, a little suspicion in her voice.

"Apartment…" Sango murmured eyes still on the watch. Houshi had scared her with all his punctuality shit, and she wasn't gonna be missing the time because she was talking too much.

10:59:35

10:59:36

10:59:37

"Apartment?"

"Yeah…"

Sango was suddenly aware that both Kagome and Terri had stopped. She paused, and slowly turned around. Terri had Kagome by the shoulder, and was glaring at her.

"Inspector Sonada, the only apartment building within miles of here is Kagome's. No hotels either."

_Shit!_ Thinking quick, Sango grinned even more friendly. "Sorry. Wasn't thinking. I meant to say my car. I've sorta been living out of my car, so I just call it my apartment. That's it."

Terri's eyes narrowed, and her hand started reaching for the front of her sagging jeans. "Inspector Sonada…"

10:59:53

10:59:54

"You just said your car was broken down…"

Sango tensed, one eye on her watch, and one hand beginning to dig into her coat. "Yeah, well, uh…"

10:59:58

10:59:59

11:00:00

Terri had the knife out and was charging before Sango even looked up from her watch, but she was a good six feet away, and Sango had always had a good reaction time.

The gun was in her hand before she was even thinking, and aimed directly at Terri's forehead a split instant later. "You're under arrest!" she half screamed, trying to keep the sudden panic out of her voice.

Terri froze in her tracks, just out of arms reach of Sango. The knife was still clutched tight in her hand.

Behind her, poor Kagome was frozen in her tracks, eyes wide in shock. Sango swore silently to herself. She had to get Kagome away before doing the rest of the bit.

"Kagome," she said slowly, making direct eye contact with the girl. "Listen carefully."

She glared up, meeting Sango's gaze with a fearful face.

"Kagome, I need you to step away from Terri, understand?"

She made no motions.

"Kagome, do as she says…" Terri said very slowly, trembling from the awkward pose she was frozen in.

Slowly, the younger girl started edging around the pavement, away from Terri and towards Sango.

"That's good, Kagome…" Sango murmured slowly, trying to use a tone that would calm her down. "Just get behind me and you'll be fine."

Kagome fixed her with a very odd glance, then exchanged a quick look with Terri.

"Listen, Kagome, I know this is hard," Sango murmured slowly, "but your friend Terri is a hacker who has stolen something very valuable. I'm afraid I'm going to have to bring her in."

One again, Kagome glared back at Sango, the expression on her face one of absolute non-comprehension. Then, slowly, it melted into a teary eyed painting of grief. "You're a _hacker?_" she half screamed at Terri, dashing around behind Sango. "You're a _criminal_?"

Sango longed to go back and comfort her. It must be hard, finding this out about a friend, but she had other matters to attend to, and she returned her attention to Terri. She was smiling a rueful grin, and nodding slowly. "I'm sorry, Kagome, but its true," she sighed. "I didn't mean to deceive you."

Sango sighed. "Sorry, kid, but you have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be held against you in-"

"-a court of law, blah, blah, blah. I know all that," Terri finished for her. "Sorry, inspector Sonada, but you loose."

Before that could even register in Sango's brain, something large and heavy cam crashing down on the back of her head, instantly blacking out her vision. She was vaguely aware of falling to the ground and dropping her gun, but wasn't totally with it again until her vision cleared. When that did happen, she was staring vaguely at a too-big pair of sneakers. Moaning, she shifted around until she had a better angle of vision, and found herself looking up the barrel of her own pistol.

"Don't move, Inspector…" Terri commanded from the back of the gun. "I don't wanna have to use this…"

Sango groaned and started to sit up, but was pushed back to the ground by one of those big sneakers. "I mean it, Inspector. I've never killed anyone before, and I really don't want to, okay?"

Sango could hear Terri's voice shaking. She must be panicked out of their mind. Once again, she tried sitting up.

"Inspector Sonada," Terri's voice rung out again, "please lie back down."

More out of irritation than anything else, she reached out and swatted the gun away. "S'not loaded, dumbass…" she growled, still wondering what the hell had hit her. "Wasn't gonna shoot a kid."

Terri glanced at the gun for a moment, and fired an experimental shot at a nearby trashcan. Nothing happened. With a growl, she threw the gun away, and once again pulled out her knife. "I've still got something to take you out with, Inspector, and I know how to use one of these."

Sango swallowed, and nodded. "I was trained as a cop, you know. I doubt you could beat-"

She was caught off by a scoff from behind her. Against her better judgment, Sango whirled. Kagome was leaning against a large two by four. The exact kind that was used to block up old buildings. There were lots of old buildings around here, and Sango couldn't' help but notice that the one nearest them was missing one of the boards. She let out a slow grown.

"You're an accomplice, aren't you…" she asked slowly.

Kagome smiled sweetly, and winked at her. "Sorta…"

Sango winced, and turned back towards Terri. "So, I gotta take both of you out?"

Terri shrugged. "I'm proficient in more forms of martial arts than you've ever heard of, lady. And Kagome has a big board with nails in it. You couldn't even take one of us out."

Sango bristled, and straitened her trench coat. "I used to be a police officer, you know… I can fight…"

Terri smiled sweetly. "Inspector Sonada, we know more about you than you think, dear. You were a miserable police officer, and never even got formal street training. They didn't even trust you with a patrol car. You were stuck with office work."

Sango tensed at that, face contorting. "And how the hell do you know that?"

"Because," a new voice said loudly and clearly, "they managed to drag it out of me."

All three women twirled towards the new voice, and found themselves facing another trio, standing calmly in the middle of the street a little less than a bloc away.

The speaker, flanked by a man on each side, was a fairly non-descript. A Japanese man, business suit, and relatively long hair, smiling at them. On his left was a tall man with almost unrealistically sharp features. On his right was an enormous, squat figure, whose only prominent feature was his bald dome, which was somehow managing to reflect sunlight despite the fact that it was cloudy out.

The most notable feature about the side two, however, was undoubtedly that each was clutching a high powered rifle.

Sango swallowed nervously, and took a step backwards, feeling suddenly very sheepish for not loading her gun. "And you are?"

The man bobbed his head politely. "You may call me Taisho," he said simply.

…

_Oh fuck. _

The man took a step forward, the two flunkies at his side following closely. He casually shook his head and emitted a disappointing _tsk_ing noise. "You know, Sonada-san, I must say I'm fairly disappointed in you. You have had all the help in the world in finding your targets, both from myself and a close colleague of mine, but despite all that you not only manage to arrest the wrong culprit, but turn your back on the real one, compromising both your job and your own safety. Very clumsy, Sonada-san."

Sango tensed, taking another step backwards. "What do you mean, and why the hell are you here." She had enough peripheral vision now to see Kagome and Terri, and they were both looking quite… petrified of the man now in front of her. Did they know something she did not?

"I mean, Miss Sango, that Higurashi-san is the culprit who actually stole my software. Miss Lorensen is a mild second in importance, at best, and you managed completely overlook your true target because of a few insignificant hunches. _Very_ unprofessional, Sonada-san. And as for why I am here, I am actually here to pick up your targets."

"Pick them up?"

Taisho shrugged, deciding not to answer her. "You, Sonada-san, I had very high hopes for you. Despite your fairly miserable performance as a police officer, and your… absolutely mediocre tendencies as a writer, I had rather hoped that if I had presented you with your dream of being a detective you would shape up, and actually show some proficiency. You have lamentably crushed those hopes, however."

Sango was past the point of processing what was being said to her, and was now only receiving the threatening undertones of the speech.

"It a shame, really. I had hoped to have you continue in your career. It is always rather nice to have someone with a position like detective in your debt, after all. However, Sonada-san, I'm afraid things will simply not work out like we want them to."

Sango was starting to breath fast as one of the men, the taller one, took a step past Taisho, and cocked the rifle.

The realization that she was about to die was an oddly calming one.

Then her cell phone began to ring. For a brief moment, there wasn't any sound but the too-cute little ring-tone.

Tiasho gave her a friendly nod, as if he was an executioner, granting her a last wish.

She reached down, and flicked open her phone. "Hello?" she murmured into it with a curiously still voice.

"_Dodge left." _

The voice carried so much command with it that she had obeyed before even registering what had been said. A split second later, she heard the faint _pfft_ of a silenced shot, and the racket of shattered glass as a nearby van's windshield exploded.

"The car, Lady Sango. _Now_."

Sango was moving instantly, crouching low and hammering down the sidewalk as fast as she could. Her cop instincts, long dormant and never particularly sharp, had suddenly gotten a boost of steroids, and she found she suddenly knew exactly what she needed to do. There were a few more muffled _pfft_s as she ran, and bits of brick wall cracked and crumbled from where the shots punched in.

The shots stopped, and were resumed by two sets of footsteps, one light and pattering and the other heavy and slow. She was being chased. She whipped around the corner to the small vacant lot her car had been parked in, and started making a beeline for the nearest door, fiddling for her keys as she sprinted. She hit the drivers-side rear door, and tore the front open as soon as she recovered. The second she slipped inside she had the keys in the ignition and a hand at the wheel. In the peripheral, she could see the skinny man charging the car, holding his rifle almost like a spear.

"Forward, Sango. No time to waste," Houshi's voice murmured in her ear.

She his the gas, and lurched forward just as the tall man reached her, lurching out of his range and into the street.

"Head towards where Taisho is, but pass him," Houshi's voice commanded, smoothly.

She nodded, too much panicked to do anything but obey, and she went forward with a hard roar, and was quickly on a collision course with the tall man.

"Do _not _hit him, Sango. It will not work well."

She adjusted her aim appropriately, and passed the man in the blink of an eye. In her mirror, she could see that he didn't even turn to watch her go. But she could also see in her mirror that the two flunkies were giving chase. The lean one had ditched his rifle, and was sprinting towards the car, doing a fairly impressive job of keeping pace. The fat one, even more impressively, was pounding after him, rifle well in hand. And it looked like he was gaining just as much as the slim one was.

"You will need to go faster to outrun them, Sango. They are not… normal."

Nodding obligingly, she pressed the gas pedal until she could swear she heard the floor cracking underneath. The speedometer was starting to top out, and still the two were gaining. _How _were they running so fast?

"Turn left here."

It was as she threw her weight into the turn, the car going up on two wheels and threatening to flip entirely, that she realized she had both hands on the wheel. The cell phone was not, in fact, pressed between her shoulder and her ear, as she had supposed it had to have been. With a sudden flash of inspiration, she realized she had dropped it after Houshi had commanded her to run towards the car.

"And now take a right."

Houshi's voice was clear as a bell. And coming from directly behind her.

With a half choked scream, she turned around, eyes gluing themselves to the man in the back seat of her car. A smile of certain serenity glowed back at her. "Eyes on the road, lady Sango," the man said. "You are about to miss your turn."

With a lurch, she hit the break and once again threw herself into the tightest turn of her life, hissing air through her teeth as once more two wheels left the ground. With a crunch her car settled back down, and kept speeding.

With sudden panic, Sango realized she was heading for an even less populated part of town. They buildings were bad where they had been. Now they were half crumbling. She didn't want to be here. She wanted to be where there were people. She wanted to be away from the two freaks chasing her.

Speaking of the two freaks… She checked her mirror. They were no longer there.

"Break." Houshi murmured quietly.

Her eyes focused forward again, and with horror she saw she was heading straight for the big guy. He had lost the rifle, and was standing confidently in the middle of the street with his hands out, almost like he was about to catch the car.

Was he crazy? Sango was pulling over ninety! There was no way he could stop them. But then again… there was also no way he could have caught up to them… right?

"Break." Houshi said again, more command in his voice.

Sango broke, hard, and quickly peeled out, turning the car sideways as she skidded. There was no way they were going to be able to stop in time.

They hit the big man with the car perpendicular to the street, still traveling almost thirty. And then slowed down to zero before they had moved another inch. Sango, however, did not stop. She careened from the drivers seat all the way across to where her head hit the passenger side window with a sickening crunch. The window cracked, tiny spider-lines turning the surface completely opaque, and Sango fell instantly unconscious.

* * *

As the two henchmen began vaulting down the street, chasing the rapidly disappearing car Inspector Sonada had dashed to, Kagome could slowly feel her intestines begin to writhe, reaching up and twisting around her heart and lungs.

Slowly, the dark haired man in front of them shifted his gaze towards Terri, then back to Kagome. His smile was friendly. The rest of his face wasn't.

He took a few steps towards Kagome. He was wearing hard soled shoes, and each footfall resonated with a hard little _clack_. "Miss Higurashi, I presume."

A little tremble ran down Kagome's spine, and she took an involuntary step backwards.

Taisho took another step forward. "I will take that as a yes," he murmured. "I believe, Miss Higurashi, that you have something of mine."

"Kagome…" Terri's voice broke the connection between her and Taisho, and she glanced over. The lanky girl had a knife in her hand, and was scowling nastily at the man. "Get away from him."

Taisho looked momentarily distracted as well. He tossed a casual glance towards Terri. "And Miss Lorensen as well. How pleasant it is to have you both here at once."

Terri scowled. "Kagome, I'm serious. Run."

Kagome was inclined to obey. She took a few steps backwards, and turned.

"Please do not move, Miss Higurashi. It will not bode well for either your or your friend, understand?"

Kagome turned again, but continued walking backwards, watching as events unfolded. Taisho and Terri were facing each other now. And Terri was slowly working her hair out of her face and into a pony tail with one hand. The other held the knife at the ready, and her eyes never left Taisho's face. Kagome took a little intake of breath, and continued walking. Kagome had only seen Terri pull her hair back once before, and that had been at a martial arts tournament. Some jackass had been saying some unfortunate things about Kagome's race, when Terri had overheard it. She and the boy had met in the ring within three matches, Terri with her hair drawn up much like it was now, and it had ended up a double elimination. Terri had been disqualified for dishonorable conduct, but by the time the gym masters had pulled her off the boy, he was in such bad shape that he had been rushed to the emergency room. The boy had never been able to practice Karate again and, if Kagome's suspicions were correct, he wouldn't be having kids anytime soon either.

Terri finished pulling her hair into a pony tail, and shook her head lithely. She had thick hair, and the resulting rope hung to her knees.

Taisho bobbed his head at her, clapping slightly. "Very dramatic," he commented, obviously unimpressed. "Now, what do you plan to do?"

"You're a rich businessman, and a scrawny one at that. And I know more about fighting than you probably have ever heard of." Terri was saying it very matter-of-factly. "I'm going to beat the shit out of you, and then I'm going to run."

"I see," Taisho murmured. "And you actually expect to be able to 'beat the shit out of me,' and simply walk away?"

Terri nodded grimly, and steadied the grip on her knife.

Taisho shrugged, and reached into his pocket. "Unfortunately, you only have a knife, and I have a-"

Terri was on him before he could finish, crossing the distance between them in seconds flat. With a sudden, controlled lunge she thrust the knife forward, going for his exposed wrist. Then Taisho moved. Kagome couldn't actually see from her vantage what happened, but with a sudden blur Terri was held tight against his body, the hand with the knife pointing straight in the air like a flagpole, the blade glittering in the dull sunlight.

Kagome swallowed, and took another step back. What now? It looked almost like a stalemate… should she take this opportunity and bolt? But he had Terri… Maybe she could get some cops or something. They would probably help.

Would Taisho keep Terri alive long enough for it to even matter.

The Terri said something. It was muffled and awkward, and sounded something like "Aa-oh-meh…" But the look on Terri's face told Kagome loud and clear that she was calling for help. And, as he friend turned a little more toward her, Kagome could see why. Taisho had a gun. A big gun. Like and magnum or something. And the barrel had been forced past Terri's lips, and into her mouth. It was angled sharply upward, right towards the back of Terri's skull. And for one of the few times that Kagome had ever seen, Terri looked scared. Terrified, practically.( practically terrified or actually terrified?) She cast Kagome another pleading glance, and tried saying her name again, once again had no success.

Taisho simply shrugged, and grabbed the pony tail, painfully pulling the girl's head back. The gun slipped out from Terri's mouth, and Taisho instead placed it at her temple. "Now, Higurashi-san, I can only assume you would not like Miss Lorensen to die here, would you?"

For a brief moment, Kagome could do nothing to speak, but the second she found it, it thrust strait from her lings out of her mouth. "Let her go, bastard!"

One of Taisho's eyebrows perked, and he grinned. It suddenly struck Kagome that it was the same amused expression that Terri would wear whenever Kagome said something particularly compromising. Only Terri wasn't wearing that expression. Instead she was wincing in pain, and panting in fear. The strongest girl Kagome had ever known was scared.

All reference of what was what suddenly torn for her, Kagome suddenly found herself trembling, the terror that was gripping Terri spreading to her as well.

Terri's head was pulled back even more, and Taisho's amused expression was gone. "Bastard hmm, Higurashi-san? It seems to me that both you and your little pet Hanyou are frightfully fond of that term. It is really a pity that I find it so very insulting." He pulled on Terri even more. "I would really not like to break Miss Lorensen's neck, but I might have no choice unless you take that comment back."

He pulled even tighter, and Terri let out a garbled cry of pain. "Kagome!" she gasped.

Taisho pulled even harder, his expression hardening. "Take it back, Higurashi…"

Oh, God… he was going to do it. He was going to snap Terri's neck like a twig and-

"Kagome, _help_!" Terri screamed.

Never once. Not in Kagome's entire life. Ever. Had Terri ever actively asked for help.

"_Higurashi…_"

"I take it back…"

Taisho's grip relaxed a little. "You take _what _back?"

"You aren't a bastard…" Kagome breathed, barely above a whisper.

Taisho smiled, and nodded. "Wonderful," he released his grip on Terri, shoving her away. Somehow, though, her knife stayed in his free hand. The tall girl crumpled as soon as she was free, sprawling to the pavement like a broken doll.

Kagome was next to her instantly, hands wrapping around Terri's boney shoulders. Slowly, her gaze shifted from the sprawled girl up to the man looming above her. His smile had gone back to friendly mode, but if anything he looked scarier now.

"It is pleasant to finally meet you in person, Higurashi-san…"

"What the hell do you want?" Kagome hissed, trying to help the gasping Terri to her feet.

Taisho shrugged. "What do I want?" he mused. "Well, for starters I want my program back."

"What are you gonna do with him?"

The man shrugged again, turning down the road. "I am not sure," he admitted.

"Then just leave him with us, and leave us alone. We won't mess with you again, or anything…"

Taisho shook his head. "Miss Higurashi, I'm afraid that's not the way the world works. You see, you have something of mine, and I want it back. It doesn't really matter if I don't have a use for it. The fact is it is my right."

"You wanna talk about rights?" Kagome growled. "Why don't you ask InuYasha what he wants to do, huh. Ten to one says he wants to stay here. Or do you think that he's not human enough to make decisions for himself?"

"Miss Higurashi, please do not be lecturing me about the ins and outs of the artificial soul theory, because I promise you I understand it better than you do. I fully intend to give… _InuYasha_… a choice."

"Then why are you so confident that he'll decide to go back with you, huh?"

Taisho smiled at her, and for a second, the meanness in the rest of his face faded, and she go a genuinely cheery smile. "Because he very definitely likes you and your friend."

"And what do we have to do with anything?" Terri coughed, voice raw. She had finally managed to stumble to her feet, and was not glaring at Taisho with dull resentment.

"Quite simple really…" Taisho laughed. "You two will be accompanying us."

* * *

Miroku winced almost casually as the impact of the car jarred him. He had, however, remembered to strap in, and was saved Sango's crash. He did give a sympathy wince when he saw the woman smash against the window, though. It _had _looked painful.

However, he had little time for sympathy. He needed to act quickly if he was to save her life. Quicker now, even than before. If only she had hit the breaks a moment earlier, things would be much less grave. He would now be forced to apply some medical knowledge to the situation, and that would require a slight change in plans.

Miroku was a quite quick thinker though, and quickly had the new agenda planned out. He glanced at the wrist of his right hand. There was no real watch there, but then again, there was no real flesh either.

11:07:37

Nodding, he unbuckled his seat belt, and scooted over to the dented side of the car, where the hulk chasing them had stopped the car flat.

Miroku reached out with his right hand, thrust it through the cracked window, and grabbed the frame. With a simple jerk he yanked it off and tossed it. He stepped out of the car as the hunk of metal landed, some ten feet away, and casually dusted his business suit off.

There was a choking sound, and Miroku glanced over to where the big man was standing near the shattered car, staring at him. Blinking owlishly for but moment, Miroku's face curled into a charming, friendly smile.

"Why, if it isn't Monten…" he said in cheery Japanese. "Honestly, how long has it been since I've last seen you?"

The big man seemed completely baffled, and took a step away from the car, glancing from Miroku to the prone form of Sango in the front seat nervously. "Miroku-san... What are you doing here?" he demanded in a scratchy voice, like it was being played from an old record.

Miroku's eyes narrowed. He was fairly sure that he hadn't given Monten such crappy voice output. That was fairly distressing. "Monten, has Taisho not been keeping up on your maintenance?" he scolded.

Monten looked panicked, his already bulbous features seeming to swell even more. "Miroku-san, he's been busy…"

"I'm sure he has, but that's no excuse. I'll have to talk to him about it next time we meet."

Monten, slowly regaining his composure, glanced over at the car again, then somewhat angrily back up at Miroku. "Miroku-san, what are you doing here anyway? This woman is wanted by Taisho for-"

"I am well aware of Taisho's motives," Miroku sighted. "Unfortunately for him, this woman is my friend, so I'm going to have to foil them for today."

"I'm afraid we can't allow you to do that," a new voice interjected, this one's sound quality much higher than Monten's, and there was a sudden point pressed against his back.

Miroku kept his smiled up. "And Hiten as well. Impressive that Taisho would deploy both of you for cleanup of a simple woman. He would normally just do it himself, wouldn't' he?"

"Taisho has other plans." Hiten muttered from behind him.

"I'm sure. Involving those two girls inspector Sonada's been tracing, correct?"

"Sure, why not?"

Miroku nodded. "So, you won't tell me anything?"

"You built our frames, Miroku-san," Hiten muttered. "But all our loyalty lies with Taisho. And he wants her dead."

Miroku glanced back down at his wrist. Some of the glass from the window had scraped off the skin, revealing the hard interior.

11:11:07. Four seconds left.

"I'm afraid there wasn't meaning you should just let me go, Hiten," Miroku chided.

"What the hell do you mean?"

11:11:11.

Miroku swung his right arm, and it ratcheted around at an inhuman angle to wrap around Hiten's face. With a little wrench, the machine's sharp features crushed inwards, almost as if someone was jumping on a dented soda can.

Hiten crashed in a heavy thud do the ground, and Miroku happily turned his attention towards Monten. "You brother was never a heavy endurance machine, you know," he said conversationally as he advanced, Monten backing away just as fast. "He was designed for reconnaissance and speed. You were the one made for combat. It's really a pity Taisho insists on abusing my creations so. I really should talk to him about that, don't you think?"

Monten didn't have time to respond. Miroku punched him in his spacious gut, and instantly the bigger man went down, oil and coolant beginning to trickle from his mouth.

Miroku shrugged, and casually glanced back at Hiten, making sure he hadn't done any permanent damage. No, they would probably be fine. Tiasho would have to bring them by his office later that month, and Miroku would have to do some body work, but it was good money, so he couldn't complain.

Once they were taken care of, Miroku turned his attention back to the fallen beauty in the car. He peeled the passenger side door off, and gently lifted Sango out. He had to admit, she was slightly more attractive in person than he might have expected. It was a pity she felt the need to hide her body under such silly clothes. Now, if she were to loose the trench coat, that would be some improvement… even more so if she also removed the shirt beneath.

Yes, but there would be time for such indulgent thoughts later. Now, Miroku needed to take care of the injury running along Sango's skull. A considerable amount of her hair had some fresh blood wetting it, and the red goo was forming a puddle beneath her head, staining the entire side of her cheek with it. Pity, that such a face was so stained.

Miroku sighed, and carried her carefully away form the site of the crash, and laid her down on the sidewalk as carefully as he could. That was the problem with normal people. They were terribly, horribly fragile. Miroku used his left arm—the gentle one, still made of flesh and blood—to turn Sango's face ever so slightly. They were also very, _very _soft.

Vowing silently to give Sango a slightly more thorough examination later, _with _her permission of course, Miroku took the fingers of his left hand and began to probe her hairline, searching for the wound. It didn't take long to find: a break in the skin, a significant one, and a distinct, though small, fractures in the skull as well. Miroku swore under his breath, and once again began to make plans. This would take more equipment than he had on hand. He would have to take her home. That thought sent a nice little chill through him. It had been quite a while since he had taken a woman home. Even if she was in a concussive coma. Still, it was a pleasant phrase.

He casually glanced at his wrist, which had enough false skin missing from it to reveal a small display with three thin hands rotating around it.

_11:14:59_

_11:15:00_

There was a soft rumbling, and a bizarrely streamlined car rolled gently towards them from an alley on opposite side of the street. As the second hand of Miroku's wrist brushed 05, the door opened. Miroku, smiling the pleased smile that he had, once again, managed to think fast enough to remain punctual, carefully lifted Sango again, and slid her into the back seat of the car.

It was almost a three hour trip to the coast, and Miroku, if he was to make it before two o clock, would have to hurry.

* * *

"Please, don't be shy. It's unlocked."

Kagome was terrified out of her wits, feeling rather cold, somewhat shamed by the mere fact that, if she ever saw InuYasha again the first words out of his mouth were going to be "I told you so," and the worry that she might _never _see InuYasha again. She was also worried for Terri.

The main reason she was worried for Terri was because Terri didn't seem worried at all. There had been the one moment, when Taisho had pulled out the magnum, that Terri had looked absolutely terrified, but now she was back to normal. Only it wasn't entirely normal. It was fakey-normal. Terri was pretending to be brave, and Terri was normally a lot better at pretending than this.

"Nice ride…" Terri was commenting, rubbing a cautious hand over the smooth paint of Taisho's car. It was, in fact, a beautiful car: some sort of brand that Kagome couldn't quite identify, but it was all curves and shine and smooth.

"Hop in," Taisho murmured, swinging the drivers side door up—actually up, not just out, like a normal car door—and slipped inside.

Kagome sat for a moment, hand poised right on the handle of her own door while Terri continued to nervously rub the surface of the car. If they turned right then and ran, maybe headed somewhere the car couldn't follow… they might be able to get away. She turned to Terri, lifting a questioning eyebrow.

Terri didn't return the gaze, but kept looking at the car, almost as if inspecting her reflection. "Go ahead and get in, Kagome," she said, eerily quiet for the normally loud girl.

"We could run-"

Terri cut her off with a grim shake of her head. "He's got us, Kagome. We won't be able to outrun him, I can't beat him in a fight, and unless I'm wrong, we can't outsmart him, either. We're done."

That hit Kagome harder than anything for the rest of the day had. Terri was throwing in the towel.

Kagome opened the door without much hesitation, and slipped inside, scooting over so Terri could have room.

The back of the car turned out to be very spacious. In fact, it was all one chamber, with seats lining walls, and a lovely looking table in the middle. Taisho was already sitting at the head of the table with a charming smile.

Terri also slid in, once again grinning. She shut the door behind her, and crossed her arms. "Well, this is pretty cool," she chuckled. "How do you steer?"

Taisho smiled, and looked towards the ceiling. "We will be heading towards Miss Higurashi's residence now, if you please?'

Kagome stiffened. "My house?" she gasped. "Why are we…"

"I am correct in assuming that… _InuYasha_… is at your apartment?"

"But my mom," she said. "What are you gonna…"

"Your mother will be out right now, gone to the bank to take care of an important detail regarding her savings account. She will not be home."

Kagome's eyes narrowed. "And how do you know?"

Taisho smiled, and shrugged. "How am I able to know anything? All I can do is hope I'm right, you see?"

Kagome didn't see, at all. But she found herself hoping that the man knew what he was talking about in this case. If her mother was home… Kagome didn't want to know what Taisho would do.

"We may go, now…" Taisho said, seemingly to nobody in particular. And suddenly the car began moving, so very smooth and easy that it seemed to Kagome that they were floating, rather than driving. But then again, given the style of the car, that wouldn't particularly surprise her.

"So…" Terri said slowly. "How exactly are you gonna stop there from being investigations when us two simply disappear."

"A fair question…" Taisho murmured, and rapped the table softly. A hole opened in it, and up shot a bottle of wine. It looked like nice wine. "Can I offer you something to drink before I launch into an explanation?"

Kagome and Terri looked at each other, a little uncertainly.

Taisho shrugged. "You never know, I suppose. I was of the opinion that all American children rather liked alcohol."

Terri scoffed. "Look, just what the hell are you planning?"

Taisho raised an eyebrow. "Very well," Taisho said. "I am planning on taking you both back to Japan with me. Your disappearances will not be looked into because I am very rich and powerful, and I can arrange it to be thus. Your parents will be placated by a visit from the FBI, stating that you were innocent bystanders in a crime, namely the murder of Miss Sango Sonada. You were both injured, taken by the FBI, treated, and put into the Witness Protection Program. It will be a tragedy, but for your own good, your parents will have to sever all contact with you for an unspecified period of time. They will be given excuses for your absence to give to your friends and peers. Soon, nobody will even particularly miss you."

The smooth smile he said it all with drove each and every point home, and Kagome found herself shuddering. Terri was right: they had very little chance of outsmarting this man.

Terri nodded slowly. "That's pretty smart of you," she muttered grudgingly. "Is it really that easy to buy out the FBI?"

"No, actually, it's not. The people visiting your parents will be actors. Very professional actors, but actors none the less. But of course, your parents will never find out about this, because the FBI will deny any involvement even if they were involved, thus making it forever the mystery.

"However, to ease your fears, on the off chance that the FBI could catch onto me, I _can_, in fact, buy them out. It would just put a dent in one of my paychecks and be, in general, a great inconvenience. No more than that, you understand."

Terri slowly nodded. "No real chance of escape, then?"

"None at all..." Taisho murmured happily.

Suddenly, the car slowed, and a pleasant voice told them that they were now parked at Miss Higurashi's apartment building.

Taisho smiled, and casually pushed his door open. "Shall we?"

Terri shrugged at Kagome, and slid out of her side, beckoning Kagome to follow.

The trio made their way up towards the apartment, Kagome slowing steadily as she went. If her mother _was _there, what would happen? Would Taisho just kill her? It could already be assumed that Sango was dead, so it would just be another body to add to the count.

And before Kagome even knew it, they were there, standing before the door of Kagome's apartment.

Taisho stood to one side politely. "Well, Miss Higurashi? Please, open it."

Kagome nodded slowly, and pulled the key from her pocket. With a slow sense of dread, she clicked the door open, and stepped inside.

"Mom?" she called out loud enough to be heard through the apartment.

"She's not here," Taisho chided as he stepped inside afterwards. He pulled a note off of the back of the door, and handed it to her.

_Kagome, Gone to the bank. Something wrong with Savings account. Be back in thirty minutes. _

_-mom_

Kagome glared at the note, and then sagged in relief. Her mom was safe.

"Now, take me to InuYasha."

The relief drained. What was this man gonna do to InuYasha. Swallowing nervously, she led Taisho, with Terri tailing him closely, to the back of the apartment, where Kagome's room laid nestled.

He opened the door, and stepped inside.

Almost instantly, InuYasha's voice greeted her. "Kagome, are you-"

Taisho stepped in behind her.

"-All… right…" InuYasha's voice dwindled off into numbed shock.

Taisho smoothly sidestepped Kagome, who was staring shamefaced down at the floor, and stalked immediately over to the computer. He leveled his gaze with the camera, and smiled. "Hello, there…"

Instantly, InuYasha started swearing. It was really his only defense.

Taisho winced patiently, and crossed his arms until the storm receded. "How colorful," he commented softly as the program quieted.

"What the fuck are you doing here," InuYasha growled, "and what the fuck is Kagome doing with you?"

"Oh, I'm kidnapping her," Taisho said conversationally, rummaging in his pocket. "Terri, too. I don't suppose you'd like to come along?"

InuYasha exploded again. Taisho held a finger to his lips. "You really shouldn't be so vulgar…"

"You touch a single hair on her head, I'm gonna fucking rip you to shreds…"

Taisho delved a little deeper into his pocket, and pulled out a round metal sphere a little smaller than his fist. "InuYasha, I'm afraid I'm going to have to insist that you come with me. If you don't, you see, I'm going to have no use for Kagome and Terri, and will need to get rid of them."

"I warned you, bastard…"

"_Don't!_" Taisho shouted, very suddenly, slamming his hand down on the desk. "Call me a bastard…"

"Ain't that what you are?"

Taisho's eyes narrowed, and he pulled out his magnum again, showing it clearly to InuYasha. "You know, the only person I really need is Kagome. Terri is expendable. You wouldn't want me to expend her right here and now, would you?"

InuYasha's eyebrows narrowed. "What the fuck do you want?"

Taisho carefully put his gun on the table, and fiddled with the metal sphere for a moment, then pulling out a long cord. He casually plugged the cord into one of the many slots in the computer. "Transfer yourself into this, if you don't mind…" His calm manner had returned as suddenly as it had left. "Actually, I think you'll find this as an upgrade."

InuYasha's eyes narrowed. "What'll that do to me…"

"A mere temporary shell, my friend. We will, of course, find something more suitable for you to live in, but this will do for now."

InuYasha's eyes narrowed. "No choice, huh?"

"No, none at all, really."

"Fine…" InuYasha growled, and his eyes closed.

Then the sprite disappeared from the screen. And Kagome's computer suddenly seemed much more… ordinary.

Taisho waited a moment, inspecting the ball for some unseen sign. Slowly, it rumbled just a little, and with a satisfied sound he pulled the cord away from the computer.

He turned around, and held the ball up. "I believe both of you will be interested in this part…" he murmured, and dropped the ball to the ground.

Kagome's gaze followed the ball as it thudded, and rolled just a bit.

Then is spasmed, countless little trapdoors opening all over the surface and little needle-like limbs thrusting and twisting out. Just as soon as it had twitched, all the little projectiles retracted again.

Another thrust, another retraction.

One more.

And then, with a little whir, four little legs thrust out on either side, and lifted the sphere off the ground. A little hole opened on the front of the ball, and a tiny lens thrust out, almost like a camera.

The ball looked left, then right, then slowly ran its little lens up the length of Kagome's body to zoom in on her face.

"Kagome?" the little ball said in InuYasha's voice.

Kagome instantly dropped to her knees, and lowered her gaze to the little spider-thing. "InuYasha?"

With a creepy little scuttle, the spider scooted forward, right up to Kagome's face. "Kagome, you're freaking huge…" the spider said in awe, once again in InuYasha's voice. It… _was _InuYasha.

Carefully, Kagome picked the little thing up, and rose once again to her feet.

"Damn, Kagome, not so fast!" the little machine whined, reeling slightly in her hands from the sudden vertigo. The fact that this InuYasha even _got _vertigo was quite… unnerving.

Then, with another sudden movement, InuYasha ran up one of Kagome's arms, and perched on her shoulder. "What's going on Kagome?" he hissed, and Kagome could feel his little legs poking at her flesh.

Taisho smiled, and clasped his hands. "We are going to Japan," he informed them, breezing past Kagome and Terri, and out of the room. "Hurry along," he called behind them. "We have a plane to catch."


	21. Powerless

Once again all comments are on the forums. Accessy through my profile page.

The comments for this post will be going up tomorrow morning, rather than tonight, because I am a very very tired person.

Ja ne.

* * *

Kagome was not feeling well. Well, _certainly _she wasn't: she had just been kidnapped, with no hope of rescue, and was, in all likelihood, going to be killed at the first opportunity. But, despite all that, Kagome had been handling the situation pretty well. At least her stomach had been somewhat behaving.

Then they had gotten on the plane.

Kagome normally didn't take well to planes. She had once flown to see Dad and Souta in Florida, on one of those big jets, and that had been grim enough for her. She had needed an airline bag not once, twice, or even thrice, but _six times_ on the trip there. She must have set some sort of record, because on the return trip the stewardesses gave her a special seat and (most importantly) a pre-positioned set of ten little paper sacks to barf into. That had been a normal jet. Normal turbulence. Normal nausea. Normal trip.

This wasn't a normal jet. This was to a jet like a high-caliber rifle was to a sling-shot. It was smaller, although mercifully still large enough to provide her, Terri, and InuYasha with their own room separate from the cockpit, where Taisho was content to spend most of his time. And it also had no turbulence, which was a god send. What this jet did have, though, was _speed_.

The laws of physics state that, via the properties of inertia, an object moving at a uniform velocity will feel as if it is not moving at all. The laws of physics had never ridden this plane. They were going far past the speed of sound. They had left Washington perhaps three hours ago, and were already well over the pacific. Kagome was no science genius, but she was pretty sure that that was supposed to be impossible. Well, at least Kagome had a good view of the water below them. Far too good, actually. The only other time she had flown, it had been at a height of some five miles, or something like that. This was, at _most_, two hundred feet.

Even ordinary ocean was very, _very_ threatening when viewed at that velocity from that distance.

Terri was quite convinced that it was neat. She had spent many long minutes bringing it to Kagome's attention, much to the younger girl's displeasure. Then, of course, after Kagome was thoroughly horrified, she contented herself to have an argument with InuYasha.

The odd thing, though, was that InuYasha was winning. It wasn't only because InuYasha happened to be making more sense at the time, but also because, for the first time in his life, he could really fight back.

"Get off, you little wanker!" Terri growled, shaking her hand rapidly.

InuYasha didn't feel like removing himself. He had slipped a pair of claws out of his hard metal shell, and was using them to hold onto Terri's finger for dear life.

"Like hell I will!" InuYasha yelled, shifting his grip quite impressively from one claw to the other.

"_Ouch_! C'mon, I just wanna see your new body!"

"I'm effing showing it to you, okay?" InuYasha growled, slowly beginning to work up her hand towards her arm.

"You're _pinching me_, retard!"

"And what the hell do _you _wanna do to me?"

Terri had at least the grace to look sheepish. "Take you apart just a little."

InuYasha managed to get up into her wrist, and from there to her shoulder. He started ramming his tiny bulk into the side of her head. "Like hell you would. First it's my code and now this? You're real twisted, you know that?"

"I'm just curious," she insisted, grabbing at him, but he was far too quick. He swiftly scuttled down the small of her back, hiding in the untamed jungle of her hair.

"Well be curious about something else!" came his muffled reply. "Don't you ever groom, woman? It's like a jungle back here."

"I pride myself on not cutting letting my hair go free. Haven't cut it since second grade."

"Don't blame you," InuYasha quipped. "Looks like you need a weed whacker to do it right."

"_Get out of there!" _Terri screeched, thrusting her hands back into the mop that covered her back, trying to find her little invader. "You're worse than fleas."

"Your fleas aren't that happy with you either, lady."

"I'm gonna kill you, you little—gwaaagh!"

Terri's hand whipped outward, InuYasha attached to the end of it via pincher. His metallic frame went flying, and sprawled across the metal floor of the plane at Kagome's feet. Somehow managing to look proudly injured despite the total lack of expression, InuYasha rose to his eight tiny feet, and began crawling up Kagome's leg.

Kagome felt her skin crawl as tiny steel pinpoints worked the material of her jeans, but she did her best to ignore it. She looked out the window again, trying to clear her mind. The antics of her traveling companions were definitely starting to weigh on her, and she wasn't sure how long she was going to be able to keep up a mask of indifferent humor.

Terri sucked on her finger, gently. "I liked it better when he could just insult me," she whined.

"You're just mad that you got owned by a little thing a tenth your size."

Terri actually pouted at that, and sauntered haughtily down the narrow path down the center of the plane to sit across from Kagome, staring quite intently at InuYasha as she did so.

InuYasha met her gaze smoothly with his single, beady-red eye.

Terri stuck her tongue out.

InuYasha made a rude little gesture with his claws.

Terri casually returned the gesture.

Kagome felt an irritated little knot form in her stomach. Here she was, being _kidnapped_, for crying out loud, and the only people she could trust seemed to be obsessed with arguing with one another.

"How you holding up?" Terri has asked the question. It was directed at Kagome.

She smiled as innocently as possible. Everyone else seemed to want to keep up a mask of mock cheerfulness, so why shouldn't she? "I'm doing fine…" she said, not even sounding confident to herself.

Terri nodded slowly. "I don't suppose you've thought of some genius way to get out of this, have you?"

"Remind me again why beating the shit out of him won't work again?" InuYasha muttered from Kagome's lap, scooting back a bit and settling himself comfortably in the little cleft right behind her knees.

Terri tensed just a little, and a genuine scowl crossed her face. "I tried that one," she smiled sarcastically. "Got a gun rammed down my throat."

InuYasha scoffed. "Just cause you're not good enough."

"I'd like to know anyone here who could do anything better."

"Hell, I was beating you just a second ago."

"Why don't you shut up before I throw you out a window, huh?"

"_Children._" Kagome's voice had come out sharper than she intended. "I think we should remember that we are currently on a plane over the Pacific Ocean. We can't do anything until we get where we're going."

"And once we get there, you'll probably have to kill me."

Kagome tensed as Taisho stepped out of the door to the cockpit, and casually strolled towards him. His lips were curved in a sardonic smile. "I'm correct, yes?" he murmured. "I have far too much will and authority to be left unattended. I would not leave you alone, and you would not be able to hide from me. The only logical solution would be to remove me from the picture."

She could feel InuYasha getting to his feet on her lap, rearing himself up to glare at Taisho, but Kagome found herself unable to glare. She wasn't even able to match his gaze.

Terri's eyes narrowed. "And how, dare I ask, would you advise we do that?"

Taisho thought for a moment. "There are many ways to kill a man. I normally like to hire someone else to do it, but if necessary I could show you twenty seven different ways to snap a man's neck." His smile deepened. "I'd need a dummy, though, and there's only one person with a neck here besides you and me. Would you be happy with only learning one way?"

Kagome trembled, again reminded how heartless the man they were dealing with was.

Terri didn't seem as affected, though. She shifted herself between the man and Kagome, casually tightening her fists. "Why are we here, Taisho?" It was blunt and to the point. "Matter of fact, why are _you_ here. You wouldn't have come yourself if things hadn't gone bad for you."

"Wrong," Taisho shrugged. "As a matter of fact, everything that has happened up until now has gone more or less according to plan, save the slight incident with Sonada-san. Of course, I didn't really leave anything to be able to go wrong, either, so that, perhaps, is reasonable."

Kagome and Terri exchanged quick glances, and then Kagome shifted her gaze to InuYasha. "What was your plan?" she asked softly.

Taisho smiled. "You really want to know?" he chuckled, shrugging as he did so, and sitting peaceably across from them. "I can't tell you everything: in its very nature, the plan relies on your ignorance. But I can tell you a few things.

"Girls, let me tell you this about life: as much as men desire success, wealth, or even fame, what they desire even more is to create. My business is, as you no doubt are finding out, dangerous, and I've no idea how much longer I'll be around. Thus, I am making one last work of art.

"Unfortunately for you two, the brushes I paint with are the lives of other people. I'm using you like I would a chisel or a potter's wheel."

Kagome felt her stomach lurch a little. "What are you trying to sculpt?" she demanded quietly.

Taisho smiled, and slowly dropped his gaze to the tiny little creature sitting in her lap. "You seem to like him, even as he is now. Just imagine what he's going to be like once he's finished."

There was silence for a moment, but eventually InuYasha stirred. "You're talking about me."

Taisho nodded slowly. "Quite a way to create something, isn't it? When you use human lives to paint with, you are never quite sure how the final canvas will look."

InuYasha trembled slightly where he stood, his tiny hooked feet digging slightly into Kagome through her jeans. "So you just go and fuck up Kagome's life for your little arts and crafts project?"

Taisho was stolid for a moment. "Why yes," he said eventually, with a flourish and a smile.

InuYasha barely repressed his growl. "That's really low. You know that, right?"

Taisho shrugged. "Don't really care, either."

"You bastard…"

Taisho had a pistol in his hand, and was pointing it at Kagome the second the words were out of the tiny robot's speakers. "What did I tell you about that phrase?"

Kagome trembled, looking directly down the barrel of the gun. "InuYasha… drop it…" she half pleaded.

Taisho's scowl darkened. "I believe I have made it perfectly clear to all parties involved that I very much dislike being called a bastard. It _offends _me. So I would ask that you don't use the word, understand?"

"InuYasha…" Kagome said again, eyes shifting up to Taisho's trigger finger. It was trembling.

"Shoot her and I delete myself," InuYasha said, very slowly and deliberately.

Taisho's finger abruptly stopped shaking.

Kagome's breath caught in her throat.

Then the gun slowly dropped. Taisho was smiling, but there was a sudden anger in his eyes. "Fair enough," he said with a slight snap, and turned back towards the flight deck.

InuYasha made a rude little gesture with his front feet as the man walked away.

Taisho bristled for a second, and but continued walking. He was growling insults as he went.

InuYasha sank back to his feet, feeling quite satisfied. Showed him a thing or two. Hell yeah.

At least, he was feeling satisfied until little sensors detected an imminent threat behind him. He turned, but not in time. Some_thing _caught him. Hard. The gyroscopes that were in charge of his orientation and balance when completely haywire as he spun out of control and smacked with a dull thud into the wall of the plain.

"_What the hell_?" InuYasha slowly struggled to his feet, and shook himself off.

Something hit him again. It was a shoe.

He spun, completely disoriented, and recovered in time to see Kagome, face crinkling in anger, pulling off her other loafer.

"What the hell was _that_?" she demanded icily.

Carefully, InuYasha dodged the second shoe that came flying at him, and instantly began to retreat as Kagome took a dangerous step towards him. Confusion clogged his circuits as a low growl set into the girl's throat. Something was definitely wrong, but what?

Kagome stormed towards him, which was a very frightening sight to see, given that she was well more than ten times his own diminutive height. "What's your problem, Kagome?" he demanded, dropping 'wench' in lieu of her real name. She seemed _really _pissed, and working her up even more wouldn't do him much good now.

"What's _my_ problem?" she screamed. "My problem is that you're a huge goddamn _idiot. _That's my problem."

InuYasha felt himself bump up against the back of the cabin, and quickly began to scale the walls. He needed to find high ground, if he was to be safe. "I'm not getting you, Kagome…"

"How could you do something like that, you moron?" She shouted, charging towards him, intent on peeling him off the walls. But he was surprisingly spry, and made it to the ceiling before she could reach him.

"Kagome," Terri scolded from her seat. "What crawled up your bum and died?"

"_Shut up!_" Kagome commanded, whiling to try and face both of them at the same time. "He has no right to put his life on the line like that."

InuYasha stopped suddenly, and turned towards her. "Is that what this is all about?"

"What did you _think _it was all about, retard?" she demanded, less anger and more hurt in her voice now. "How could you even _say _something like that? You'll _delete _yourself?"

"Kagome, I was trying-"

"I don't_ care_, InuYasha. _Nothing _gives you the right to say that, okay?"

"I did it for you wench!" he growled as his temper flared, 'wench' once again in his active vocabulary. "He had a gun to your stupid little head. What else was I supposed to do?"

"Gee, I dunno, something besides threaten suicide, for starters?"

"What are you, _stupid_?" InuYasha growled. "It was common sense. He just gets done telling us how much he cares about me, and then threatens to hurt you. Sorry, Kagome, but there's no way I'm gonna let him get away with that."

"Well there was some other way you could have-"

"What?" InuYasha interrupted, finding his own voice was suddenly just as fierce. He had _protected _her, dammit. He had thrown his neck out there to save hers, and she had the gall to get pissed at him for it? "What could I have done, Kagome? Hate to tell you this, but I'm not really combat armed, here. Most effective thing I could have done besides what I did was try to hit him in the crotch, and I think we both know how much good that would do, Kagome. I did the only thing I could have done, okay?"

"No, it's _not _okay," Kagome shouted, full force now. "Don't ever threaten that again, InuYasha."

"Not your choice, wench."

"It's not worth killing yourself for me, InuYasha."

The little machine dropped from the ceiling to the floor, and briefly glared at her. "That ain't your call either."

Slowly, the anger fell from her face. "InuYasha…" she murmured, half-pleading. "_Please_. Don't do anything stupid like that for me."

InuYasha sighed, shaking his little chassis from side to side. "Kagome, I'm not even goddamn sure if I'm alive in the first place, so don't go telling me what I can or can't die for."

Kagome crossed her arms. "But-"

"Kagome?"

She turned. Terri was sitting in her seat still, on eyebrow raised as high as it would go.

Kagome swallowed, and nodded slowly.

"Much as I hate to agree with anything he says, spider-boy's right this time."

Kagome's jaw dropped. "How can you say that?" she gasped.

Terri's eyes shot open, and her lips suddenly fell into a killing scowl. "I can say that because it's the truth, Kagome," she hissed. "I hate to tell you this, but our survival rate right now is _nil_. We're _all_ gonna have to take risks like that, because if we don't then all three of us are going to die, and no offense, but I don't like that idea."

Kagome threw her arm at InuYasha. "But he shouldn't have to be the one to-"

"Could we just cut the idealistic crap for a second?" Terri said so softly that it severed Kagome's shouts like a knife. "Let's face it. None of us should _have _to do any of this. We're eighteen years old. We should be thinking about what boys we like and where were going to college, not how we're gonna survive the next couple hours."

She slowly stood up in her seat. "And I don't know about you, Kagome, but I for one, am scared shitless of it." She turned on the shorter girl, eyes burning. "I'm about this close to peeing my pants because I know that at some point we're all gonna have to risk taking a bullet to the head for one another, and that's not something I'm looking forward to, and it'll be a whole lot easier if you don't freak out on us every time the tiniest little bit of trouble comes along, okay?"

The sudden silence in the cabin muffled the loud rumble of the jet engines.

Kagome was gaping, jaw hanging slack against her neck.

Terri trembled a few moments more, and then set back down into her seat, looking away.

Kagome swallowed a very cautious mouthful of air, and slowly descended into her seat as well.

The little ticks of InuYasha scuttling awkwardly back and fourth over the metal did nothing to alleviate the silence. They only punctuated it.

It was several long moments before Taisho's voice came over the intercom and informed them that they would be nearing Japan in about an hour.

A few more moments before Kagome spoke again.

"Sorry."

Terri's hand waved wearily in the air. "Don't worry about it," she muttered softly.

Kagome looked out the window, musing softly to herself and watching for the tiny bit of coastline that could, she suddenly realized, be her home until the day she died.

* * *

Miroku took slow measured steps upwards, grunting slightly as his forehead began to bead with sweat.

He would have to remember to hit himself for putting so many stairs in his laboratory later, when his hands were free. To his defense, he had never expected to have to actually live here, but he hadn't had anywhere else to call home for almost three years running.

He had most certainly never expected to be carrying a woman bridal style into his humble residence (albeit, the thought had made it into his idle dreaming from time to time). In those dreams though, the woman had always been conscious.

She was quite heavy, he found, particularly with all the leather she wore. Miroku didn't like leather. It was far too coarse for him. Sango was a woman more fitted for cotton, or perhaps silks. The corners of his mouth tugged. Thin silks. _Very _thin silks. And not a lot of them. Or perhaps none at all.

He allotted himself such thoughts for only a moment before shutting them out of his mind. She was wounded, and needed medical attention foremost. Any other attentions Miroku would love to give her could wait until later. Like when she was conscious, for instance.

By the time he reached the top floors of his lab, he was sweating up a storm. He made a little mental note to remodel after this fiasco was over. Putting the medical sector of the lab on the top floor hadn't been the best of ideas.

It troubled him, though, the difference of strength in his body. His right arm had all the strength of a colossus, but the rest of him was just as frailly human as anybody else. Perhaps he could make a few modifications to his legs, and…

He scowled suddenly, lips tightening. With a vicious cruelty, he threw the thought from his head and sealed it off in some dark pit in the back of his mind. He had mutilated himself quite enough, thank you.

From the top of the gently curving stairs, it was only a few more yards to the room he wanted. The intensive rehabilitation chamber was a place he had used himself for quite a while after he had first gotten his new arm. It was well suited to the task at hand. As he trudged into the small room, he laid his precious Sango down on a smooth, padded bench.

He took but a moment to ensure everything was in order. It had been several months since he had touched anything within the confines of this room, but he made sure to leave things in good shape whenever he closed it up again.

He was glad of that now. Everything was prepped, and all he needed to do was run the final scan and get Sango into her treatment unit. That piece of technology which had so often saved his own life was something he had designed strait out of some science fiction movie he had seen once. A huge tube, clear and gleaming, dominated one corner of the room. There was a simple vertical slab in the capsule, with padded restraints.

Miroku's eyes shifted over a monitor towards the base of capsule, scanning the data readouts for the thing casually. Everything was ready, and if all would go according to plan Sango would be right as rain within a day.

That was, of course, after he got her in it.

Miroku turned back to the still form of the girl, and for what seemed like the hundredth time that day his eyes narrowed at her clothing. It would be troublesome, he knew, trying to peel it off without moving her too much, and movement was something Miroku was trying to avoid.

Well, the trench coat, at least, would be easy enough.

It was best to get this part of the job done quickly.

With a tiny click, a long blade extended from his right index finger. It was very sharp, and made short work of the hard leather that covered the woman's form. It wasn't long at all before it had been reduced to a few very long pieces loosely resting over her.

Peeling what remained coat away, Miroku took a grimace at the rest of his duty. She wore a clinging halter that would no doubt be hell to remove, and some tight leather pants that would no doubt be even more so. He sighed, and shook his head.

Carefully, he removed the shirt in much the same way, a quick slit to each of the thin shoulder straps, and then a very careful incision down the middle. It was only once the central slit was made and the shirt fell open, though, did his brain fog.

In retrospect, he should have expected it. Despite his self-proclaimed expertise in the matter, he was far from versed in feminine clothing, but even he knew what was lying in wait when a woman's shirt was removed. He should have steeled himself before he had begun, but he hadn't.

And Sango was very beautiful.

With a sudden wrench, he tore his eyes away, and turned around again, steadying himself. He snorted a moment in self disgust. It wasn't right to look at a wounded woman like that.

He took a deep breath, girding himself, and turned again, keeping his eyes below the level of Sango's waist, and went to work on the heinous pants. They proved to be the most difficult: he had to make six cuts, all down the hip and onto the thigh, just to get them to where they would slip off.

They slipped of rather suddenly and…

Oh…

Oh dear…

Sango's legs were very…

He tore away, first clenching at his sides.

With an inward curse, he shook his head. There was a time, once, when he had actually had self control. Apparently, sometime in his long seclusion, he must have lost that.

He whirled, and, concentrating now more on speed than anything else, bereaved her the last scrap of cloth on her body and scooped her up before his treacherous eyes could even take into the full scope of the beauteous thing before him. Right arm crooked under her knees and left arm gently holding up her shoulders and head, he ferried her to the medical tank. Eyes straight forward, he commanded the tube open, and the glass slid smoothly away, allowing an opening towards the bowled bottom perhaps three foot square.

Carefully, trying to keep both hands and eyes away form the sensitive areas, he strapped her into the tube. That done, he carefully fixed a respirator tube into her nose, and sealed her mouth with a bit of medical tape, to make sure she wouldn't drown. As he backed away, he hit a few commands on the side of the console.

The glass slowly closed around her again, and just as it sealed liquid began to pour from the ceiling of the tube, running down the sides in smooth rivulets. It was barely any time at all before the woman was completely submerged, and the water level was reaching the ceiling. Miroku kept his eyes focused on her hairline, suddenly wavy and hypnotic, as he waited to ensure that the procedure was working as it was supposed to be.

As the liquid stopped filling, there was a soft chirping sound.

Glints of silver began to obscure the water, and swarm to her, like tiny schools of fish. Tiny schools of fish towards an immensely beautiful mermaid. And mermaids were famous for not wearing—

Miroku distracted himself, recounting as much detail of the tiny machines that were currently fixing his guest. Amazing things all connected by a small wireless network, all working under the same intelligence. It had been a little gift from Taisho in the early years of their relationship. Miroku had designed their mechanical functions himself. More like tiny bugs than anything else, they were designed only for one purpose: seek damaged tissue, and repair it.

As the first found Sango's skin, they clung and immediately began to crawl, miniscule waving sensors searching for any wounds. It wasn't long at all before they discovered the long gash in her head, and the crack in bone underneath, and it wasn't long before dozens were there, tiny little claws working furiously as they sought to repair the damaged flesh.

Still others, found more trivial wounds: a scratch on the cheek, a scab that had been picked at on her shoulder, or a piece of fingernail that had been cut far too close. They swarmed over her.

Miroku watched as one of the innocent little machines carefully made its way over her, looking for anything to fix. His eye traced it as it went from one cheek to another, then down to her long, pretty neck, and then across her chest.

There his eyes ceased following the machine.

His tongue drifted out, and wetted his lips. Right arm clenched. Left arm reached.

His soft fingers, for only a moment, brushed across the thing sheet of glass that separated them, longingly.

Sango was _very _beautiful, and it had been so long since he had even _seen _a woman in real life. Surely nobody would begrudge him of taking advantage of such opportunity placed at his doorstep…

His hand, pressed smooth against the glass slowly formed into a fist, and drew away.

He turned around, face unreadable, and took measured paces to the other side of the lab, where he set his hands down on a slim metal work table. His lips quirked up into a smile.

With a sudden howl of rage, he brought both fists down on the table as hard as he could.

Gods, he was so very weak. He was like a damn mongrel dog for all the self control he had, lusting over anything with the right anatomy that happened to pass his way.

His eyes surveyed the table beneath him. Where his right hand had hit, the metal dented in by almost a solid foot. Beneath his left hand were a few drops of blood from his scratched knuckles.

He trembled slightly. It was his flesh that made him so pathetic. Of this he was positive. His right arm was strong and powerful. It lacked no discipline. It obeyed as he wanted it to.

How easy would it be for him to simply do for the rest of himself what he had done with his arm. Improve himself. Make everything about him stronger.

It would be truly easy.

But, like every other time he had considered such action, he chickened out. There was no way he could ever do something so heinous to himself. The flesh was weak, pathetic, and disobedient, but at least it was alive. That was something that his right arm would never be able to claim again.

On that grim thought he rose up, and made his way out of the room.

Alarms would sound through the whole lab should something go wrong with the treatment, and he would be able to be there within minutes. Sango would no doubt be awake by tomorrow, and at that time she would surely want some food, her own room and bed, and if nothing else, some decent clothes.

There was work to be done, by then, and work, at least, was something Miroku could force himself to do.


	22. Parting Ways

Somewhere in the back of Rin's mind, a well used sense of irony was again gnawing at her, like a constantly throbbing splinter.

After two unbearable days of near complete silence between the two of them, Rin would have thought she'd have been grateful for any noise to alleviate the horrible tension that had settled between herself and Sesshoumaru.

They hadn't spoken at all since the day after the encounter with Taisho. The sudden revelation of Sesshoumaru's betrayal—or perhaps Rin's own stupidity—had left her too hurt to speak. In the airplane back to the states, she had said as little as possible. Only enough to get through security. On the taxi ride over to the hospital, she had tried to listen to the radio, but that had done nothing to alleviate the terrible quiet that seemed to have settled over them.

She would have thought she would be grateful for some noise—any noise at all—to come between them.

But, as she sat in the hospital room with the little sign reading "Shippo Karota" on the wall, she found herself wishing that something, _anything_, would make the beeping of Shippo's heart monitor be quiet for just a few seconds.

It was lazy and rhythmic, like the gentle ticking of a metronome. The _blipping _was just sharp enough to catch her attention and drag it in hungrily.

The irony that nipped at the back of her consciousness was only a mirror of this: a constant renewing of pain she would just as soon leave behind.

Shippo looked terrible. He was emaciated, filthy, and frail. The skin clinging to his arms was so jaundiced that it was almost transparent, like paper smeared with grease, ready to tear off at the slightest disturbance.

There was a little clip board, on the table next to the bed. It had a diagnosis on it.

Brain dead.

Her parents, before they had died, had been exactly like this: lying in cold hospital rooms, so far gone that there was no hope of retrieval. .

The doctors had pulled them off life support after a week, and then she had gone to live with Naraku.

Was that what was going to happen to Shippo?

Her throat constricted at that thought, and her hand drifted down to clasp his.

"Rin…"

The girl stiffened, and cast a glowering look over her shoulder.

Sesshoumaru stood, tall and looming as always, next to the doorway of the room. If _he _was affected by the awkward silence that had fallen, he gave no indication. She sometimes wished that she had as much self control as he did.

She didn't grace him with a response, though. She still wasn't sure if she could talk to him without exploding. Whether she would explode in rage or tears, she wasn't sure, but it would be one of those two.

He seemed completely nonplussed by her lack of response, however. He reached out and touched her shoulder with his good hand. "We should leave," he said simply.

Rin pulled away from him, almost violently, and hunched her shoulders more.

Sesshoumaru allowed a annoyed breath—almost a snort—to emerge from his nose. "Rin," he repeated. "We should not stay here any longer than necessary."

Gradually, rin surfaced from her own thoughts. Tentatively she opened her lips, trying to break her silence. Several choice words she would have loved to say to him rolled around in her mouth for a moment, before she settled on a simple "Why?"

"You are being searched for. Your disappearance after the death of Naraku has attracted attention, and should we be found the questions would be inconvenient. ."

Rin slowly drew in a breath. "Inconvenient…" she said as she let it out again, slowly shifting here eyes towards him. "Inconvenient to us, or inconvenient to you?"

He shifted his head. "I am your guardian. Those things are one and the same."

She snorted, gently clutching on to Shippo's hand. "Well, I'm sorry I'm such a royal inconvenience, but I'm not leaving yet."

Sesshoumaru shrugged. "It would be better—"

"You could always leave on your own," Rin grated out through clenched teeth.

Sesshoumaru shrugged. "Regretfully, I must ensure your safety."

Rin glared at him for a moment, as if considering that thought, before turning back to Shippo. "Safety?" she asked with a hint of sarcasm in her voice. "What the hell is that supposed to mean? What is there to protect me from, Sesshoumaru?"

Sesshoumaru gave no reply.

Rin glanced back at him. "Hmm? Nothing? That's right. Guess what? Naraku's dead, and my old school's been suspended. There's nothing left to protect me from. You're out of a job."

Sesshoumaru allowed the shadow of a scowl to cross his face. "What of the incident with Taisho. You can't claim that was nothing…"

Rin nodded in sarcastic agreement. "Yeah, I forgot about that one. Great job back there by the way. You really saved the day." She paused just a moment, feeling herself coil up like a snake getting ready to strike. "But then… You remember why they that freak tried to attack me? It was cause you were trying to kill him. Hate to tell you this, Sesshoumaru, but getting me out of situations you put me in doesn't rate very high on the scale of protection."

Sesshoumaru turned to glare at her a moment, piercing gold eyes suddenly making her waver. But she merely narrowed her own dark orbs, and met his gaze evenly.

You are ungrateful," Sesshoumaru stated as a fact.

Ferociously, Rin's fist came smashing down on the bedside table. "Why the hell should I be grateful to you, huh?" she seethed. "Thanks so much for fucking up my life, is that what you wanted to hear?"

"It is regrettable you feel this way," Sesshoumaru said.

_Regrettable…_

That was the kind of word to describe a broken toy, or spilled milk.

Rage began to boil somewhere inside Rin, and as it threatened to overflow she got to her feet, and stalked towards him. "Regrettable?" she hissed through clenched jaws. "I'll tell you what I regret. I regret ever getting saddled with you in the first place. Things were going just fine for me before you came, and suddenly you appear and guess what happens. I loose my family, my friends, and my life because of your goddamn protection." Clenching a hand into a fist, she suddenly punched him, knuckles rapping against his fine jaw.

Sesshoumaru barely moved, and her hand came away bleeding.

She glared at her wounded hand for just a moment more before glaring back up at him. "You're made of fucking metal, Sesshoumaru. I can't even touch you without hurting myself. The best way for you to protect me is for you to get the hell out of my life." She sneered at him, and turned away. "I want you gone."

With almost painful hesitancy, Sesshoumaru lifted his right arm—his good arm—to where a fleck of red dotted his cheek, and wiped it away. He fixed her with a cool, golden eyed gaze, and nodded. "I understand."

Then, with the regal power she had come accustomed to, he turned and left, sweeping down the hall with no glance either back nor to the side.

Rin watched him go with grim satisfaction, rubbing her wounded hand as he walked away.

If she ever saw him again, it would be too soon.

* * *

Sesshoumaru did understand, all too well, what Rin had told him. It made terrible, perfect sense. He himself was dangerous, thus distancing himself from her was the greatest means of protection.

Sesshoumaru also understood, in a way, how Rin was feeling. Sesshoumaru had hoped to conceal the truth of his compulsory protection from her for as long as possible—though he did not understand why. Obviously, it would have hurt her to know that her guardian was acting only on obligation to his basic nature, but why Sesshoumaru should care about such a thing was beyond his grasp.

Another thing Sesshoumaru didn't understand was how the logic of an emotionally traumatized eighteen year old girl could have been sounder than his own. It was a finagling loop running in the very back of his processing bank, never quite leaving him alone.

Rin was correct, plain and simple.

Sesshoumaru was a dangerous object, a machine designed from the very ground up for killing. It was natural that he should attract danger. On the vise-versa, the average life of an adolescent was a safe one, even given Rin's… extraordinary circumstances. Thus the most effective protective measure he could have taken for Rin's sake was to leave her.

He had been given all the information to make that conclusion available from the very first day he had been given the assignment to watch over her, yet his code had never acted upon it until Rin had yelled at him earlier today.

Why was it that he had never made the connection? Instead, he had followed her like a lap dog (a thought that had ever made him internally cringe), and taken care of her petty troubles for her. True, her life had been threatened, three times, and he had saved her all three times, but it was also true that none of those incidents would have occurred had he not been there.

It was confusing to him.

In the world outside of his own mind, the hospital doors below him opened, and he picked up the familiar scent of Rin. He watched from the building rooftop as his charge made her way from the building and out towards the streets.

In instant reaction to this, several of Sesshoumaru's thought streams bent themselves towards her immediate well-being. Where would she find food for the night? Shelter?

Perhaps it would be best if he were to go down and help her find a suitable hotel. He had claimed a little money from Naraku's many funding accounts before they had been suspended, and could easily afford to give her some. He had little need for it himself after all.

Sesshoumaru allowed himself the slightest of outward expressions and shook his head. Thoughts such as those were foolish. It would be best for both of them if Sesshoumaru was simply to disappear from her life. She would fine on her own for a single night, and even so, there were authorities out looking for her. She would be taken into custody, and given another chance at life.

That life she would be given would be far safer that what Sesshoumaru could offer.

As Rin made her way from the hospital out into the city proper, Sesshoumaru made a gentle, silent leap from the edge of the hospital roof to another, lower rooftop, shadowing her movement.

By all rights, Sesshoumaru should take advantage of the opportunity. Somehow he had been given the thing he had wanted: freedom from his duty as guardian. If anything, his code would now be forcing him away from her, rather than nearer.

That thought, though, irritated him.

It was insufferable, that his greatest plague had been healed with so few words from an eighteen year old child. It made no sense… why should Rin, who seemed to lack any sense of wisdom gifted to man, have such sudden insight?

He leapt to another roof, still casually tracing her steps.

Any further more, why should the sudden solution cause him such irritation? It was inappropriate for one to question a blessing, no matter how baffling it was. But not only did he question, he did not even partake. He had been given the chance to escape, but he did not take it. There was nothing stopping him from turning and going the other way, and never laying eyes on his young charge again. In fact, by all rights, that was exactly what he should do.

Perhaps that, in of itself was the reason for his irritation. Before he had been forced to stay at Rin's side, now he was forced to keep his distance. The idea of being _forced _to do anything irked Sesshoumaru, as if something was constantly eating at the very back of what, for lack of a better word, was his mind.

He followed Rin for another five blocks before she finally paused, glancing down a shady-looking side alley branching off from the main street.

Sesshoumaru's eyes narrowed as he watched her, and instantly several of his thought-streams patched over to a different mode.

Sesshoumaru was at the alley in an instant, looking down from above. Mechanical eyes sent the virtual image he was processing through every possible detail and angle, creating a completely three dimensional model of the area in his data banks within several milliseconds.

Nothing there was dangerous at the moment, but he hadn't been designed to take that on faith.

Somewhere above Washington, satellites began to signaling one another, and information began to pour into Sesshoumaru's CPU. Crime rates for individual areas of the city, populations, estimated risks of individual streets, live satellite image feeds of said streets, and a constant tracking of Rin as she took a tentative step towards the alley.

Gently coaxing his claws to grow, Sesshoumaru kept golden eyes wide The place was deemed under his "not safe" category, and he would be damned if he allowed Rin consider sleeping in such a place.

But all came for naught, as the young woman turned away with a shrug, and continued down the street.

As the defensive mode Sesshoumaru had slipped into subsided, he continued his unhurried pursuit, loping again across the rooftops to trail behind his charge.

She stopped at a bank, and then, after that, a pizza parlor.

Sesshoumaru watched her like a hawk the entire time, patching into the security cameras at the bank as she got money out of an ATM, and later into the databanks of the restaurant to check her order. Two slices of pepperoni, and a coke.

Then, shortly, Rin wandered on, and eventually found her way into a hotel. A quick background check revealed it to be reputable. The place had standard sized rooms (Rin had checked into 207, one with a king size bed), continental breakfast, and reasonable rates. It had not been the location of any murders, rapes, or other felony class crimes.

It was… safe.

And it was as Sesshoumaru was downloading this information that the understanding of the earlier revelation dawned on him. There was nothing to protect Rin from. There was no danger save that he himself brought to her.

Internally, one of the his thought-streams took to silently seething in rage that he, against all thought and ration, had used his first night of freedom protesting the very blessing he had been given.

The rest of his thought streams, though, simply turned to a new task. His left arm was badly damaged, and would need repairs. He needed a good mechanic.

At a simple pace, Sesshoumaru made his way from the hotel Rin stayed at. She had payed with credit card, which would have, by morning, revealed her to be the missing Onigumo. Thus she would be taken out of his hands for good, and he would have no more obligations to her.

As to why, somewhere in the back of his mind, he kept a constant data feed for Rin's location running, he had no answer.

* * *

Rin tried, as best she could, to relax against the stiff Super8 Hotel mattress and drift into sleep.

It wasn't working.

She rolled onto her side, cramming as much of the pillow as she could in between her head and the mattress, but that didn't help. Lying on her stomach just made her back hurt, and she had never in her life been able to sleep flat on her back.

It was odd, with all the torture that she had gone through in school, she had never gotten insomnia before. Sleeping had always been one of the things that she had never had trouble doing.

To bad she had somehow lost that talent for this night. Listlessly, she tossed and turned over and over again, shifting from left side to right, with every different way to prop her head up she could manage with the small pillow the place afforded.

Why could she not sleep?

A voice, clear and sardonic in the back of her head, offered Shippo's name as an answer. But Rin didn't want to think about Shippo. Those couldn't possibly be pleasant thoughts.

She had spent until the hospital closed their visiting hours at his bedside, holding his frail hand. He hadn't been aware she was there, of course, but perhaps it was more for her own sake than his. Either way, the stay had calmed her a little, at least, after she had chased Sesshoumaru off.

Sitting up, she allowed a bitter snort to come chasing out her nose. She didn't want to think about that bastard either. Why did he have to be so… cold about everything?

She had been ready to forgive him too. Or, at least, she would have been if she was sure he needed forgiveness. Had the machine even done anything wrong? By his own words, he hadn't had any choice in the matter. He was a slave to what his code mandated. If she had been stupid enough to think there was anything more in her ex-guardian than duty, well that was her own fault.

But there wasn't a chance in hell she would forgive him now. Caring or not, duty or not, trying to take her away from Shippo was something she would not excuse. It didn't matter if it was for her own protection or the bastard's own personal benefit, she would not be separated from her friend. She would stay with Shippo until…

She didn't want to think about that.

She didn't want to think about anything but sleep. Tomorrow would be dealt with as it came.

Apparently her mind disagreed with her, though, prodding her over and over again with stray thoughts, until anxiety tore her away from the verge of slumber like an eagle snatching up a rat.

The clock read 1:23 AM in glowing green. With a sullen moan, she shifted her feet out of bed, and stood on wobbly legs. Stumbling her way to the bathroom of the little one bed hotel room, she flicked on the lights, and glared at herself hawkishly in the mirror.

A snort fled from her nostrils, and she brought the back of her hand to a ruddy cheek, rubbing gently. She realized that she had been crying, but she must have been, because there were nasty tear splotches all over her face. She cursed, and drew in a breath, only to have it sound to her own ears like a little sniffle. A tear slid down her eye.

Shit. She was _still _crying, dammit.

When had she become this much of a pansy?

She left the bathroom, still sniveling, and walked over to her jeans. If she couldn't sleep, maybe she would just take a walk.

* * *

Somewhere, on the other side of the city, Sesshoumaru allowed the faintest of smiles to graze his lips. It had taken longer than expected, and it was already late, but he had found a suitable mechanic.

He would waste no time in getting the repairs he needed. With a glance down at his left arm, limp and useless at his side made his insides curl in rage. _Shoddy craftsmanship_, Taisho had said, grinning at him after slicing through the arm with a knife.

It was unthinkable that Sesshoumaru could even be _damaged_ with a meager knife, much less incapacitated to such an extent.

Very well, then. If it was shoddy craftsmanship that was plaguing Sesshoumaru, perhaps he would merely force the mechanic to do an entire reworking his system. Sesshoumaru would return from this _Miroku _in better shape than ever before.

As he traveled, moving quietly and discretely, to avoid attention (no mean feat, with his attire), a thought crossed his head. The mechanic he was looking for was far out of the way from any major city, and certainly far from DC.

He would lose the tracer of Rin's location.

As that thought sprang into his head, he inspected the data feed momentarily. Rin was still in her hotel room, moving about just a little, but other than that still safe and secure.

He set his jaw, and turned.

Already, he had devoted too much time to the girl. If he had not obligation, there was no reason to remain. Both she and he were better of without the other, so it was best to just leave.

Resolutely, he headed out of the city, traveling east.

As he did so, he turned off his satellite feed, and with a blip Rin was gone from his mind.

* * *

She slipped into her clothes and, making sure she wiped her face off with one of the complimentary towels, headed out the door.

She was courteously quiet as she headed out of the hotel, and even more so as she stepped out into the cold night air. DC was a dangerous city, but only if you were stupid about it.

Rin knew where she could go and still be safe.

Picking her way carefully at each corner, she headed away from hotel, hands shoved in her pockets, and facing resolutely forward. She was stepping quickly, with purpose, as if she had some grand destination, but really she was just ambling. There was no where to go, after all.

Perhaps tomorrow, she should try to get her life into some sort of order. Go to the cops, or something. They would probably help her.

Hell, she had used her own credit card to pay for the hotel room. It was likely that they would find her, before she went to them. Either way, perhaps some things could go back to normal after that.

Maybe they would just let her skip the rest of high school. She had only missed the last month of it, after all, and there were only two weeks left before she was supposed to have graduated, now. They should just give her a degree, and let her move on. Find a college with a good art department.

Then, shattering all thoughts out of her head in a single instant, a haunting shriek crashed into her ears from behind.

Rin froze, and instantly looked around, preparing herself to bolt, in case something came her way. Looking left and right, she narrowed her eyes in confusion. She was in a well lit part of town. A nice one, too. The odds of shit happening here were almost nill.

Another scream, from behind her at just a little distance. This one was cut brutally short.

Involuntarily, Rin's head jerked to the side, in the direction of the sound. And suddenly her blood began to run faster through her veins, her breath caught, and her vision swam.

The scream was coming from the parking lot of the hospital Shippo was staying at.

Another shout of fear. This one was a man's.

Rin's heart almost slowed to a stop as a split second debate raged in her mind.

All her life, she had run from danger. Danger was dangerous. It was best to avoid it altogether. And people screaming in horror sounded dangerous to her.

But, Shippo was in there. She couldn't' abandon Shippo.

Shippo would be fine. If there is some sort of crime going on there, the odds of any one patient getting caught up in it are slim.

But… what it wasn't a crime. What if it was a fire or something?

Then there wouldn't be anything she could do, right?

And besides, Shippo was going to die anyway…

…

That thought made Rin freeze in her tracks, a sudden wave of sheer disgust washing over her so deep and so wretched that she almost puked then and there.

Was she so disgusting to actually have thought that?

She clenched her jaw, and turned towards the hospital.

She started running, and didn't stop until she had skidded to a halt in the hospital parking lot. Where she _did _puke.

There, in the middle of the hospital parking lot, was a body.

A body that was split open, from the collar bone to the crotch. Bloodied ribs jutted up into the air, broken skin hanging off them in little shreds. The stuff inside was completely destroyed, like it had been through a meat grinder.

It was instantaneous. Rin dropped to her knees, turning away, and heaved.

It was only when she looked up that she saw another body. This one had been quartered, lying in four messy pieces in front of her.

She barely stifled her scream of terror as she stumbled backwards, directly into the pool of blood from a nurse who had been turned inside out.

Her head reeled in sudden horror, and again her stomach started to heave, choking her of breath.

Another scream, above her, and pieces of someonecame flying from the second floor of the hospital, splattering towards her left.

A trembled ran through her as she lifted her eyes towards the hospital building.

There was a giant… _thing _clinging to the side of the hospital, digging into the smooth surface with six great hook like arms. Like a giant spider, it scuttled further along the building, and brought itself down on a window, smashing through the glass and reaching in with two grotesque tentacles. A tremble ran through Rin as a terrible ripping sound shot from the window. The tentacles retracted, tossing another body out. In two pieces.

Rin could feel the scream clawing at her throat, struggling desperately to make itself heard, but her mouth was clenched so tight that nothing could escape.

The monster shuddered, and suddenly reached in again, and pulled out another person, this time intact. The sound trying to escape suddenly muted as she saw the still, trembling form of Shippo in the thing's disgusting grasp.

The beast dropped down suddenly, letting go again, and landing smoothly on its spindly spider legs on the pavement, not far from her.

Then she did scream, a horrible piercing sound.

There, in the nexus of legs and tentacles and bloodstains, smiling hungrily at the Shippo's limp body, was Naraku.


	23. The Epiphany of Rin Onigumo

Hey, all.

Just like to reiterate, all authors notes and everything are on my set of forums, which you can find via my profile.

All reviews are appreciated and cherished, but if you want me to respond to something, you'll have better luck posting it there.

In addition, this chapter, I feel, does it's best to earn the fic the M rating due to violence, so do be warned.

Thanks, all, and enjoy,

Garret Jax

* * *

It took less than a second for Rin's scream to come to a halt. Panic collapsed around her throat, constricting it mercilessly, until she couldn't even squeak. Sudden shock settled over her mind so fiercely that it drowned out everything else. Fear simply evaporated, horror fled against numbness, and Rin collapsed to her knees, heedless of the blood soaking into her jeans.

The Naraku-thing shifted its spindled limbs, and began to move, casually towards her.

She could see, now, through her detachment, every horrible detail of the monstrosity. Rin's dead father had been burned to death, pierced with hundreds of electric lines. Nothing had been repaired: his skin, beneath the tattered lab coat, was blackened, scarred, and rotting. Even his face, sadistically grinning, was terrible: missing teeth and missing lip revealed a gangrenous mouth cavity, resting just below eaten away nose holes and gaping sockets where his eyes once were. The six spider limbs were no more than twisted steel bars, bursting savagely through the skin of his back. His arms had been mangled, and hung from his torso like limp gloves, boneless. Tentacles made of nothing more than stripped cord and wire splayed out from his stomach, where his intestines should have been.

Those terrible tentacles gathered Shippo closer, bringing the limp boy up against Naraku's rotting chest. Then, with a sickening grace, the twisted spider legs shuffled, and the monstrosity moved forward, towards Rin, and then past her, as if refusing to acknowledge the girl's existence.

She turned to watch it go, disappearing without a sign of hesitancy from the parking lot of the hospital, and quickly scaling the side of an adjacent building. Her eyes remained glued to the soiled lab coat that she had clung to as a child until it disappeared over the edge of the roof.

Rin wasn't sure how long she sat in the filth of the bodies around her before she was rescued. It seemed far too long.

Then, as if a gate had been opened, the parking lot was filled with light, shining down on the massacre, revealing every grizzly detail for Rin's benefit. Unable to take the sight, she doubled over, and again vomited.

This time, though, when she was able to lift her head again, there were figures all around her, shouting and yelling. A comforting hand descended on her shoulder.

She jerked and glared sideways, into the panicked face of a young doctor. She could see his lips moving, hurriedly, trembling, panicked, and she could sounds, quavering and high strung, but she could make neither hide nor hair of what the man was saying to her.

The man waited a moment, then repeated the syllables. She shook her head, not comprehending.

Finally, the man slung one of her arms around his shoulder and, grunting, lifted her to her feet. She was led, feet plodding one in front of the other, to a place by the curb, where she was sat down and pampered. The doctor ran off again, to where a gathering of every emergency worker imaginable was gathered: firefighters, policemen, EMTs, and others Rin didn't even begin to recognize.

Someone—a nurse—draped a blanket over her shoulders, and thrust a mug hot with something into her hands. She leaned down next to Rin, and, facing her with a calming but worried frown, placed a hand on her cheek. "Ma'am, can you understand what I'm saying?"

Slowly, Rin lifted the mug to her lips, only to find herself trembling too hard to take a sip. Teeth chattering, she nodded.

The nurse tried to give her an encouraging smile, and nodded in affirmation. "Good," she said. "Now, do you think you can speak?"

Rin blinked at her, mouth hanging open. Tentatively, she took a breath and tried to force some sound out of her throat. Nothing came. Instead she only shook her head.

The nurse nodded, again trying but not quite succeeding to smile. "That's alright ma'am. You are in shock; you have just been in an accident. Please attempt to remain calm, and stay in this spot." She reached forward and pulled the blanket tighter over Rin's shoulders. "This will keep you warm, and when you feel you can, try to drink a little. I need to run and help the others, understand?"

Only barely comprehending, Rin nodded. The nurse gave her one last comforting touch on the shoulder, and turned away, rushing over to where the bodies lay.

Rin watched in a hazy blur as the police and doctors moved together, carefully looking at each of the bodies before covering them with a sterile cloth and shifting focus to the next. Behind them came the EMTs, carefully writing things down on little pads as they walked. Every one was pale and trembling. She could imagine what it was like writing _**Time of Death:** _over and over again.

Then the last group came, the ones that scooped up the bodies, or what was left of them, and dumped them in body bags. They looked sick as well. Everyone in the lot looked sick. Like they were barely holding together.

As one of the body bags was rolled past her—the one with the inside-out girl—something slimy and squishy dropped from a tear in the bag, and trailed on the ground behind it.

It was as one of the workers muttered the name of Jesus, drawing a cross over his chest, and proceeded to scoop the thing back up, that the numb that had settled over Rin's mind faded.

The reality of the horror came crashing down on her so heavily that it almost paralyzed her.

Her hands suddenly gave a jerk so bad that the contents of the mug, piping hot, sloshed out and over her arms. She barely felt the pain, but let the mug clatter to the pavement anyway.

She reached up, pulling the blanket as tight around her as she could, the trembling reaching its icy tendrils into her whole body. Her breath started hiccupping and catching in her throat, stripping her of breath and voice. The most she could make were pathetic choking sounds as her vision began to swim before her.

Perhaps by a mere stroke of luck, the nurse who had helped her before glanced over again. Instantly, the woman cursed, and shrieked for an EMT, rushing over to where Rin was.

With precise violence, she was turned and shoved face first to the ground. Without knowing why, she started thrashing, screaming violent, incomprehensible syllables until three pairs of hands pinned her to the ground. Her arms was grabbed from behind, and pulled out, hard. One of the people efficiently took a syringe, and jabbed her right in the pit of her elbow.

As suddenly as it had left her, the numb came back, spreading from where she had been poked to the rest of her body like a warm breeze on a freezing cold day. Gently, she was turned over, and one of the EMTs stuck little plastic pads to her face, neck, and just below the neckline of her shirt.

_Beep_, went the heart monitor, freshly set up next to her.

_Beep_, it went again, just an instant later.

The nurse hovered over her, and gently rubbed at her cheek. "Don't worry, dear," she murmured. "It'll be alright."

_Beep_, went the heart monitor, slower this time, as Rin's muscles relaxed, and the drug kicked in.

_Beep_, went the heart monitor as her throat relaxed and breath once again found its way into her lungs.

_Shit_, said her brain, over and over again, as her muscles gave out on her, and she could do nothing but lie in fuddled horror while bloody carcasses were carted away around her.

Her father—no, it was Naraku, not Dad—was alive, in a manner of speaking. But she had seen him die, plain as day, electrocuted into charcoal, and then burned when the lab collapsed.

The lab…

She had seen the central above-ground section burn, but what of the underground manufactory complex? Sesshoumaru had been convinced that had been destroyed as well, but if it hadn't?

If it hadn't, that would still offer no explanation for why Naraku would be alive. And why he would kill people like this. And why he would take Shippo.

He _had _taken Shippo.

Somehow, perhaps because of whatever was now running through her veins, that fact didn't quite affect her like it should have. She should have been scared, or confused, or even angry.

Instead, she could only observe the fact, same as the way she would notice the sky being cloudy, or the color of a passing car. It was just information to be processed.

_Beep_, said the heart monitor.

Maybe… maybe she should have gone after him. Chased the Naraku thing down, and taken Shippo back.

Maybe she would have gotten ripped to little pieces, like the saps getting carted off. And besides, there was no way she could have followed that thing: it scaled buildings like she would climb a ladder.

_Beep. _

But then, she knew where it was headed, of course. The only place that Naraku had actually enjoyed spending time was his lab. Destroyed or not, that would have been the best place to look. She knew a couple short cuts to get there from this part of the city too. It wouldn't have taken that long to reach.

Too late now, though. Opportunity lost.

_Beep. _

Maybe Shippo was already dead by now. Who knew that Naraku wanted with him. Maybe there hadn't even been a reason. The bastard had been sadistic enough while he was alive. It made sense that he'd be even more so while dead.

But what if he wasn't? Could Rin even do anything to save him? Maybe she could talk to the cops.

No, wouldn't work. If she tried telling them, they would think she was hallucinating, and they'd only drug her again. They might knock her out completely, this time.

_Beep. _

If someone was gonna help, it had to be her.

But then, if she tried to help, she would only end up dead.

_Beep_.

That was something her existence had beaten into her: life hits you enough on its own, so don't step in font of blows for other people. Put your face in the way of a fist, you will get punched. Put your body in the way of a bullet, you will get shot. But yourself in the way of death, you will die.

Rin did not want to die.

_Beep_.

Rin didn't want her heart to stop beating.

_Beep_.

Even for Shippo.

_Beep_.

She was such a coward.

_Beep_.

Somehow, in her drug induced state, tears had begun slipping down her cheeks. She could feel them tickling at her chin.

In the back of her mind, she could see Shippo from before the accident, leg freshly broken, hobbling around the school on tiny crutches, giving her the occasional encouraging smile across their table in the lunch room.

She had asked him what he had done to get his leg broken.

He had picked a fight with a jock.

She had snorted, and called him an idiot.

Shippo had smiled, and said that it had been worth it, just to get one good punch in.

Rin had called him an idiot again.

And he was an idiot. An overprotective little ingrate who didn't understand how nasty life could be. And a week later he had gotten his little pea-brain bashed to kingdom come trying to defend her.

_Her!_

What was so special about Rin that made people so protective, anyway?

Why did everyone else jump in front of fists, bullets, and even death just so she wouldn't get hit with anything?

She had never tried to protect anybody, so why did other people do it for her?

_Beep_.

Rin just wanted to get on with life, and live. She didn't have any ambitions about the future, or even next week. All she wanted out of life was to keep on existing until tomorrow.

_Beep_.

Rin didn't want that comforting beep that said her heart was still working to go away.

_Beep_.

_Beep_.

_Beep_.

Her chest rose and fell of its own will, the drug voiding her of total control over her body. Tears ran down her cheeks, but she couldn't move her arms to wipe them away. While she was lost in a sea of thought, her body moved on without her.

_Beep_.

_Beep_.

Head lolling to the side, Rin watched as the heart monitor did its job.

_Beep_, it said, along with the blink of a little red light.

_Beep_, it said again, and so it continued, reading her heart, fulfilling its purpose.

_Existing. _

Rin was like that little machine, existing just to exist. Her heart beat just so it could beat again. She took a breath, just so she could let it out and take another. Tears fell from her cheeks to make way for more tears, and Rin did nothing to wipe them away.

Was that it, then?

Was this her life, to just keep on existing, only to live to the next day?

She slowly reached up a hand, and wiped the tears from her face.

_It was worth it_, Shippo had said, _just to get one punch in. _

Just to have one moment of triumph, it was worth pain.

Just to protect someone, it was worth death.

Rin rolled forward, and stumblingly got to her feet, heedless of the monitor wires falling from her.

The machine at her feet gave a pathetic half-beep, and died.

Shippo had better have been right.

She had managed to fumble her way a few steps down the sidewalk before someone caught her. The same doctor that had led her to the curb took her gently by the wrist, and looked at her severely. "Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask that you sit down."

Rin, mind beginning to clear as she moved, caught his wrist and pushed it softly but firmly away.

The doctor frown, grabbing her again, more firmly this time. "Ma'am, please. If you are not treated properly, your condition could eventually become fatal. I must ask that you cooperate with us."

She shook her head, pushing him away again, stepping down the street faster now.

The doctor shook his head in amazement. "Ma'am, if you continue this reckless behavior your life could be in danger."

She paused a moment at that, glancing at him. With a soft smile, she shrugged and said, "I know."

Then she turned and ran, legs carrying her away from the hospital as fast as they would go.

And somewhere inside of her, for perhaps the first time in the eighteen years her heart had been beating, she heard very life go

_Beep_.

* * *

The ruins where Naraku's lab once stood were almost completely cleared away, leaving only the skeleton of the complex left. Rin looked at the terrible place with a shudder. The girders that remained standing were twisted and blackened from the flames, and nothing grew on the earth underneath where the building had stood, not even weeds.

She picked her way across the scorched lot, until she found what she was looking for. The hatch lid that had originally led to the construction site beneath Naraku's lab had been torn off its hinges, and lay several feet away, bent out of shape. Now there was only a gaping hole with half melted steps leading down into darkness.

Steeling herself against sudden anxiety, Rin carefully picked her way down until her feet came into contact with solid floor.

Beneath the earth, she could see little, save what was graced by the few intact emergency lights. The pale amber they gave off was just enough to see the hallway with. It had frozen halfway through the process of melting. Steel stalactites dripped from the ceiling, while ripples lay frozen across the floor.

As she made her way, the glass that had once protected darkened side rooms could be seen dribbled halfway down the walls.

The memory of the two times she had come down here—meeting Sesshoumaru, and later when Naraku had tried to kill her—stood clear in her mind. This twisted hall would lead her directly to the grand chamber of the place, a vast construction area where, if she placed her bets, she would find Naraku and if he was still in one piece, Shippo.

Her pace quickened as the emergency lights grew more numerous, lending her surer footing. Before long, she was able to see light in the distance, where her destination was.

She came to the end of the hallway sooner than she had expected, and a sudden wave of anxiety hit her before she could move into the main chamber.

A trembled crept its way up her spine and across her shoulders, tingling the hairs at the nape of her neck. She stepped back in a wave of nausea before bracing herself.

_Overcome fear…_

She took a step forward, and then another.

And with that, she stood in the entrance of what used to be the main construction floor of Naraku's factory.

It was now a junk heap, the walls torn and broken as if they had been chewed to pieces. Torn shards of metal littered the steel floor. She could see, with a chill, that further down the room, some were welded together, and twitching softly, as if struggling to move.

In the middle of the great room the Naraku monster stood on its own two legs, the spider limbs lifted upwards like as if in preparing some pagan sacrifice.

Shippo lay, unmoving, beneath him.

Moving with methodic poise, the Naraku-monster lowered its claws and carefully set the boy spread eagle.

A slithering, coiling sound, like a snake shedding its skin, filtered to Rin's ears from above. She glared upwards and froze, a half gasp barely making it out of her throat.

The ceiling of the room had been destroyed, replaced with what was now a jungle of writhing wire and cable. Like some alien landscape, the mass cringed and wriggled, until several of the clumps of wire dislodged themselves, and drooped in lazy coils towards the floor. One ended in a hook. Another in a sharp edged piece of scrap.

They were descending towards Shippo.

Rin's mind, fear suddenly forgotten, whirred to life. She rushed forward, snatching a jagged length of what might once have been a pipe, and went after the only thing she could think of: the desecrated carcass of Naraku.

She cleared the yards between them with surprising ease, barely even winding herself, and thrust out before the monstrosity could react. The pole connected, the jagged edge punching through the monsters rotting mouth and out the back of its skull.

Ferociously, she pulled out again, and swung sideways, catching the thing in the neck, knocking it aside.

As Naraku collapsed, she crouched ferally over Shippo's body, glaring daggers at the mass above them. The tentacles had paused, hanging uncertainly in the air as though considering this new entry.

Then, from the edges of the room, and moving steadily inward, the entire mass began to undulate, pulsing in and out grotesquely. And accompanying the movement was a rich, deep laugh.

Her stomach turned as her ears recognized the voice of her adopted father.

"Rin…" the voice hissed, sounding almost pleased. "I had thought I wouldn't see you again."

She glared around, first at the twitching body she had just knocked aside, and then up at the pulsing mess above her. "Naraku…" she breathed. "Where the hell are you, bastard?"

Another laugh, another pulse from the ceiling.

"I'm above you, Rin," the voice chided. "And below you, too. All around you is where I am…"

She glared in no direction in particular. "Why are you alive?"

"I don't know." Naraku admitted with a disturbing giggle. "But I'm not one to count my blessings, now, am I?"

Rin crouched low, and slung an arm around Shippo. The thing that used Naraku's body was starting to twitch again, the metal legs beginning to reach out for her.

Using what strength she could muster with one arm, she pulled Shippo away from the groping beast, only to be stopped as one of the tentacles from the ceiling rocketed down and punched through the steel floor behind her like tissue paper.

"I'm afraid I can't let you take that, Rin. It's a valuable resource, you know."

Rin glared up. "What the hell do you want with Shippo?"

Naraku chuckled. "I have my reasons… why do you want to protect him. He's dying, you know. Your being here won't do any good."

She held the boy closer. "He deserves to live as long as he can," she hissed.

"Live?" Naraku asked. "What is life, exactly, Rin? That boy isn't even aware of himself anymore? Is that called being alive?"

Rin trembled. "What do you want?" she repeated, again, dragging Shippo towards the exit.

"Perfection," Naraku answered, his voice suddenly soft and passionate. "I want to be perfect."

Rin almost snorted. "You have a long way to go, then," she snarled, and pulled faster. "But that doesn't explain why you'd want a brain dead boy."

Another tentacle descended. This one pierced directly thought Shippo's stomach, yanking Rin short. The girl stared in momentary horror, before stumbling backwards, releasing her grip on the boy.

"Brain dead?" Naraku asked, suddenly dragging Shippo across the room, painting a bright red stain as he did so. "Ah, yes, that's the flesh word for it."

Out of nowhere, the Naraku monster lunged behind her and lashed out. Rin gasped and looked down to where a shaft of steel two inches thick pierced through her shoulder. The lance angled suddenly up, lifting her off her feet.

She screamed in pain, hands groping feebly at the spear as it jostled her.

"But you see, Rin…" Naraku's voice droned on, clear and incessant. "I don't think in terms of flesh any more. To me, the brain is just a spongy computer, and brain dead is just a fancy way of saying the security is down."

With another shake of the shaft piercing her, Rin stopped struggling, and slid down on the thing until she felt her back touch the dead flesh of the corpse's chest. The wiry tentacles shifted suddenly around her, fixing her gaze on Shippo as he was forcibly lifted up and speared on a hanging hook.

"After I died, Rin," Naraku began in an almost sing-song voice. "I woke up again, like this. How delightful is it, Rin, to have every limitation of the human body suddenly removed from you. I don't need to sleep. I don't need to eat. I can focus everything on creating now."

The voice suddenly took on the glazed tone that meant the bastard was rambling to himself.

"I think, perhaps that I was very lucky. But as I explored my new life, I soon realized that there were… limitations. I have no true body, for instance. I can manipulate the machinery connected to my systems, of course, but anything more than that is outside the realm of possibility.

"This is easily fixed, of course. Already, I've made arrangements to get some more… advanced parts than the scrap metal I'm currently using."

The spear inside of her twisted, and she let out another scream, clawing feebly at the metal shaft with blood-slicked fingers.

"Imagine, if I can do this with near useless steel, what I could do with quality materials. There would be no limit.

"But that's not all, Rin. I've noticed there are other problems. Somehow, when I was… _transferred, _something went wrong. My… code, I suppose you could call it, is plagued with inefficiencies and bugs. And I cannot abide inefficiencies.

"So, I decided I would rework myself, changing bits and pieces until I had become the perfect program. But it would be foolish to simply go after it willy nilly, wouldn't it? No, of course I couldn't do that. I would need to… experiment."

Shippo was suddenly hoisted high into the air.

"So I thought to myself, that somehow I was able to become a program, why not others, yes? Humans are, after all, only complex machines.

"I tried, Rin. Oh, how I tried with the first few people I caught. But the brain apparently has its own security system, and they proved… useless."

All around her, bodies began to drop from the ceiling. Each one was missing the back half of their skull.

"But I realized something simple, Rin. If the brain has security, why not just find someone whose brain is damaged. If I'm lucky, the security will be gone, right?"

Rin gasped against the metal choking her, sputtering blood. "You're sick…"

"Maybe," Naraku said indifferently. "I don't care, though. The important thing is this: I _will _achieve perfection. And if this little boy… Shippo, was it? If he has to be sacrificed, then that's a small price to pay."

Then a cord as thick as a tree branch drooped down, and casually ripped Shippo's legs off.

Rin gasped in pain, blood welling up into her mouth and down her chin.

"Relax, Rin, and sleep. I don't let resources go to waste, after all. Inefficiencies are not allowed. Perhaps I'll learn enough about the brain from Shippo that I'll be able to try you next. And if it doesn't work, well, I could always just use your skin."

As these words echoed around in her head, she slowly lost consciousness, and fell into darkness before she could witness any more of the dismemberment of her closest friend.


	24. Strength

InuYasha roused himself, his spindled legs unfolding and digging ever-so-softly into the fabric of Kagome's shirt. He lifted his chassis of her shoulder by about and inch, and carefully turned himself to glance at her.

Her eyes were hanging heavy, and the corners of her mouth dragged downward.

With a muffled grumble, he inched himself over, and nudged his light little frame against the side of her head. A small sigh escaped her as she turned her head.

"Oi," he grumbled, tiny speakers embedded in his metal sides vibrating with the sound. "How you holding up?"

Kagome managed to lift an eyebrow and give a wan smile. "I'm fine," she said, shaking her head.

InuYasha snorted, the little red lens which served as his eyes focusing sharply in on her. "Bull."

For a moment, a hunted look came over Kagome's face, almost as if she expected someone to leap out and attack her at any moment. But then, that wasn't entirely unbelievable, given circumstances. "I'm fine," she insisted again.

InuYasha his head—his entire body, technically. "Oi, wench. You're not okay, and you know it."

Snakelike, Kagome arced her head to glare at him. "Dammit, InuYasha," she hissed, quietly, like the conversation was supposed to be secret. "No, I'm not fine. I'm scared shitless. But we don't' have the time for me to have a major breakdown right now, so I'm trying my hardest to hold myself together, and you constantly asking if I'm okay isn't helping. So I'm _fine_."

Just as abruptly as she had snapped, she turned again, leaning forward to rest her elbow on her knees, burying her fingers fiercely into her hair. Shaking her head violently, she shrugged him off her shoulder.

He spun midair, and landed on the chair next to her, still keeping his camera's focus towards her face.

She swallowed visibly, and wet her lips with her tongue. "Sorry," she said, softer now. "It's just… if I break down, I'm no use to anybody, and none of us can afford to be useless right now. I need to be strong, like…" she drifted off, but lifted her eyes significantly towards the lanky form of Terri, standing tall on the other side of the room.

Whatever fear the odd girl had shown earlier was seemingly gone now, vanished like water out of a desert. The lopsided grin that both InuYasha and Kagome knew had returned to her face, and now stood prominently over feral, steeled eyes.

She stood tall near the fall wall, inspecting the only door into the tiny room they had been locked in. Occasionally, she would reach out a hand, and jiggle the handle, then look genuinely disappointed when the lock had not magically sprung open since the last time she had tried.

If nothing else, the simple gesture would make Kagome smile. InuYasha was suddenly immensely jealous of the tall girl's ability to do that. And yet, at the same time, it was comforting. On the other side of the planet, at the mercy of the world's richest man, and as hopeless as hopeless got, Terri somehow managed to still act odd. InuYasha clutched to that simple bit of familiarity.

Breaking him out of momentary reverie, Terri took a sudden step back, and fixed herself into a defensive position. InuYasha, taking the queue, tensed himself in his seat.

The door unlatched with a click, then swung open.

Casually, Taisho stepped inwards, and pushed Terri backwards with an extended finger. She took a step back, allowing him to come in, but stayed in the intricate martial stance.

He fixed her with a charming smile, and clasped his hands. "My apologies for having to keep you in this room for so long," he said in his slightly accented English. "But we had to make some… last minute preparations for you."

Terri scowled, and edged between him and Kagome. "Quit the cryptic shit," she growled. "What happens now?"

Taisho raised an eyebrow, and shrugged. "You truly take all the fun out of kidnapping people," he murmured. "For now, you will be put into rooms, where you will stay until you are told you can leave. Beyond that, I'm not going to tell you a thing."

"What kind of rooms?"

"You get to find that out on your own," Taisho laughed, before spinning on his heal, and marching to the door. "Follow me, please."

Waiting only a moment before nodding to her companions, Terri followed Taisho with careful, measured steps.

InuYasha managed to latch onto Kagome's wrist before she also stood up, and quickly scaled his way to her shoulder by the time they were out the door. The three of them walked in a close knit group, following several yards behind Taisho as he walked.

"This, if you haven't figured out yet, is the central headquarters of TaishoCorp," Taisho called as they moved. "Located in scenic Central Tokyo. You had best get used to it, for I'm afraid that none of you will be leaving for some time."

They passed another turn, and arrived at a waiting elevator.

There was a man waiting in the elevator, glancing at Taisho with an expectant look. It was odd, though, to think that the two knew each other: Taisho was the model of a business-man, with slick hair and a black suit. The man in the elevator was wearing hiking gear. He looked like he belonged on a nature documentary.

"Koga," Taisho said, something oddly different about his voice. It took InuYasha a moment to realize that Taisho was speaking Japanese. "Make sure that our guests are settled comfortably in their rooms, and that they are unable to escape."

"Yessir," the man—Koga, apparently—snapped with a nod.

Kagome and Terri were staring at the two in non-comprehension, and InuYasha mentally noted that he would need to start acting as a translator for the two of them.

Taisho turned and smiled pleasantly. "This is Koga, my personal assistant. I'm afraid I have pressing business matters to attend to, so he will make sure you get to your destinations safely. Please follow him."

Koga gave the three of them a brief nod, and gestured towards the elevator.

Terri leading, the three filed into the small box, and glared at Taisho as the doors closed.

InuYasha sat nervously on Kagome's shoulder as the lift began to lower, various data feeds in the core of his chassis beginning to feed him data about the velocity of their decent. It was _very _slow, much slower than an elevator ride should be.

It must be psychological, he decided. An extra-long ride in a closed space to knock them further off balance than they already were. And just to make it all the more unsettling, Koga was with them, looking just threatening enough to put them on edge.

Perhaps by instinct, or perhaps by disposition, InuYasha found himself feeling a sudden loathing for the man. His gaze had shifted slowly from Terri, then InuYasha, and finally fixed dangerously on Kagome. InuYasha didn't like how he was staring at her.

"Oi," he growled, switching seamlessly over to Japanese. "You want something you can ask me, otherwise keep yer eyes moving."

Ignoring Kagome's surprised look, he narrowed his lens at Koga, following the warning up with a threatening growl.

The man shifted his attention towards the tiny robot, and pulled his lips back into a feral grin.

"Whassat?" he replied, his tone completely civil, but his eyes narrowing nastily. "You trying to order me around, little turd?"

Both women glanced back and forth between the two, no idea what dialogue was transpiring.

InuYasha tensed himself. "I'm saying that if you wanna keep your eyes in your head, you'll learn to keep 'em off the girls."

The man let out a laugh. "That's cute," he commented. "InuYasha, was it? Don't know what the old man was thinking when he named you that, but I gotta admit it suits you, ya little dog-shit."—InuYasha gave an indignant snarl, and Koga leaned in close to him, and Kagome by proxy—"Lissen up, dog-shit. While old man Taisho's not here, I'm in charge, and your pathetic little tin can of an ass can't stop me, so if I wanna eye the goods, you got nothing to stand on. Got it?"

InuYasha's vision, already red from the lens he saw through, went crimson. Without even thinking, he flipped out an arm attachment—a three inch long, slightly curved razor—and leapt. He went for the eyes, but missed, instead drawing an angry slash down the side of Koga's nose, across lips and through his chin.

But, as he fell, Koga caught his tiny chassis and slammed it against the elevator wall, bloody lips curling back into a snarl. "Goddamn fuckface," he shouted, grinding InuYasha's small form against the steel of the elevator. Little warning lights went of in InuYasha's brain, telling him that much more pressure would crush him. "I'll _show _you who's in charge here, then."

But before Koga could pull anything, long, strong arms encircled his waist, hefting him up and over. Terri, with a ferocious scowl on her face, let out a hefty grunt as she completed the suplex, smashing Koga's head against the far wall. He crumpled to the ground, clutching at his head and spilling out an impressive stream of curse words.

With a flick of her toe, Terri snapped InuYasha up to her hand, and interposed herself in front of Kagome, holding up InuYasha by his bladed arm, like a swiss army knife.

Stumbling to his feet, Koga glared at the trio with a groan.

"Translate for me, InuYasha," Terri said, tensing.

InuYasha snorted, finding himself unable to move in her firm grasp. "Yeah."

Terri turned her gaze towards Koga, and twisted her head from side to side, allowing sickening cracks to run down her spine. "I'm in a bad mood today, kid, so listen up," she growled, and InuYasha faithfully translated the sentiments for the injured man. "That bastard Taisho might be able to punk me, but I'll be screwed up the butt before I let a two rate muscle head like you even think about pulling anything."

Koga stood up and lunged, but Terri drew an easy line of red across his jaw with InuYasha's razor, kicking him backwards at the same time.

"I said _back off_," she roared, furious. "I'll tell you what you're gonna do. Your gonna turn your ass around, your gonna stand in the corner until this elevator opens again, and then your gonna take us where your supposed to take us, and then your gonna leave. And you're not even gonna look crosswise at us for that entire time, got it. You hurt the robot, you die. You try and hit me, I break you. You even _think _about touching Kagome, I will make sure Taisho never finds what's left of you."

InuYasha added some more colorful language here and there, but got her meaning across.

Koga's face, now dripping blood, contorted into a snarl. Terri took a threatening step forward. "Face the corner," she hissed. "Now."

InuYasha took a particularly savage pleasure in informing the sorry bastard that he was being given a time out. He even allowed himself to be waved around by Terri, who firmly herded their captor into the corner of the elevator, and forced him to turn around.

The elevator ride lasted a total of three minutes and forty three seconds by InuYasha's internal clock, and he spent almost all of that time clutched in Terri's hand, the inside of his head brimming with silent laughter.

As the elevator door slid open, Koga was the first to stumble out, wiping blood out of his face. Honestly, InuYasha was surprised the man was still standing: the cuts hadn't been bad—superficial scratches, really—but the shock should have been enough to shake him a bit, but he still seemed fairly in control of himself, if not the situation. Now that Terri had the knife away from his throat, he rose again to his full height, and produced a bandanna from one of his many pockets.

His face cleaned up surprisingly well, leaving slim but nasty gashes where he had been cut, but little actual blood. Turning around, he fixed them with a stony glare, and gestured into the hallway stretching beyond him. "This way please," he said in very formal Japanese.

InuYasha chuckled, and wriggled free from Terri's grasp, skittering up her arm to her shoulder, where he leapt onto the top of Kagome's head. Kagome gave a brief, complaining sigh, but didn't shake him off.

"He wants us to follow," InuYasha translated, "and he's finally learned some manners about it, too."

Kagome nodded slowly, transferring InuYasha from her crown of hair to her shoulder with one hand as she did so. The trio began to once again follow Koga through long, business-like halls.

InuYasha got the distinct impression that they were now underground, mostly because he saw no windows _anywhere_, which seemed off for an office building of this caliber.

In fact, many things about the place they were being led through were odd. There were no cubicles, for instance, merely room after room of small, messy offices. The environment was strangely relaxed, not like he would imagine a software company to be.

"For you information," Koga said suddenly, "this is not an official part of the TaishoCorp enterprises. This is the department that does not officially exist on public records. You swill be staying exclusively on this floor except for when invited elsewhere. It is inadvisable to ask anyone here for help, largely because they already know who you are, why you are here, and they will not offer anything to help you."

"What'd he say," Kagome asked, turning towards InuYasha.

"We're not allowed to leave, and nobody here's gonna help us," InuYasha summarized, realizing some of the implications of that. This was the 'unofficial' department of TaishoCorp. That meant illegal. They were surrounded by people who were, legally speaking, criminals then. So much for asking others for help.

Kagome nodded grimly at the news, and cast a worried glance to Terri.

"Don't worry," she murmured easily, keeping a bandy pace after Koga. "I'll think of something."

Somehow reassured, InuYasha and Kagome both relaxed a little at that, following along until, at long last, Koga stopped them at a simple wooden door. He unlatched it with a key, and opened the opened it, gesturing inside. "For the tall one," he grunted.

The tall one? Terri, alone? Inwardly, InuYasha swore. Of course, they'd be held in separate rooms. Taisho would just love to split them up, wouldn't he? "No dice, pal," he growled. "We stay together."

"I have my orders, Dog-shit," Koga said. "Tall girl goes in this room, and that's final."

"What's he saying, InuYasha?" Kagome asked, nervous.

"He want's to split us up. Terri goes in this room, we go somewhere else."

Kagome stiffened at this news, and gave Terri a panicked glance.

The taller girl only balled her fist, and smacked it into her palm. "He won't back down?" she asked.

"Not likely. We could beat him again," InuYasha said.

Terri pursed her lips momentarily, cracking her knuckles speculatively as she thought. Then she dropped her hands to her sides. "No choice," she grumbled, much to the shock of both Kagome and InuYasha.

Shaking her head violently, Kagome clutched at the taller girl. "No way," she said desperately. "You can't leave us."

A reassuring smile graced Terri's face, and she placed a silencing finger across Kagome's lips. "Don't worry about me," she murmured. "I somehow doubt they're gonna try and pull anything overnight, and you'll be fine even so. InuYasha might be dinky, but he ain't helpless. We can't afford to push our luck here, so try and make the best of it tonight, okay?"

Kagome swallowed nervously, but nodded.

Terri gave her one last grin, and then a thumbs up before flouncing through the door, and slamming it after her.

Koga raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. He locked the door, and gestured for the two remaining to follow. Kagome timidly followed, keeping a good distance between her and their captor.

They stopped at the next door down the hallway, and Koga unlocked that as well, gesturing inwards with a low grunt of Japanese.

"He says that this one's for the two of us," InuYasha translated.

Kagome gave a final glance towards Terri's room out of the corner of her eye, then entered the portal in front of her.

The door closed with a click, and the latch closed with a solid _thunk _behind them. The room they found themselves in was dark, but InuYasha could still see just a little.

"There's a light switch to your left, Kagome," he said, skittering down her arm a little, and poking at her elbow to guide her.

Probingly, she reached until she her fingers closed around the little nub, then flicked upwards.

As light flooded the room, both InuYasha and Kagome found themselves taken aback.

Kagome had been expecting a bare room. Even a cot would have been a luxury.

Instead, she got plush carpet stretching out before her, as if beckoning her to remove her shoes and bury her toes in the soft fibers. The room itself was enormous, far bigger than her old room. A king size bed, lined with goose down pillows sat in the corner, with a neat little bedside table and a reading lamp on the side. A vanity, complete with multiple drawers and an ornate mirror stood opposite the bed, and between the two an entrance to a restroom, complete with a full bath.

The feeling that very little in the world made sense any more settled over Kagome as she stumbled towards the vanity, opening the top drawer. There were multiple sets of pajamas within, and she knew on some inner instinct that they would fit her perfectly.

"InuYasha?" she mumbled in a dazed voice.

"Yeah?" The robot responded, obviously just a surprised.

"This seem weird to you?"

"Definitely…"

Kagome sat down with a thump, on the bed, InuYasha tumbling off of her and further up the mattress. The comforter which covered the thing was lined with something that felt like fluffy silk, and had to be stuffed with the softest substance in existence. She could have sunken into it and fallen asleep on the spot.

InuYasha struggled his way out of the soft mass of the mattress, balancing precariously on the soft material. "Kagome?" he called. "How are you holding up?"

She glanced to him. "I'm..." she paused a moment, wetting her lips. "I'm being strong."

InuYasha nodded his body. "You should get some sleep then," he admonished.

Kagome nodded, standing up. "I'm gonna get a shower first," she mumbled, grabbing a pair of pajamas and heading towards the bathroom.

Sighing as the sound of running water began, InuYasha glanced around the room. He didn't like this one bit. Kidnappers didn't give their victims royal treatment like this. It wasn't the way things worked. Which could only mean that Taisho had something up his sleeve.

He glared around the room, suspicious, his red lens focusing sharply on anything that didn't belong in the room. Table… vanity… bed…

Security cameras. Four of them, positioned subtly in each corner of the room. They were small, silent, and barely moved at all. If he hadn't been looking, he would have missed them.

They were under surveillance, which meant…

It took him less than five seconds to scale the bathroom door and dismantle the lock, and less than that to push through the door

He only saw Kagome in peripheral, carefully ignoring her sudden indignant screams and attempts to find cover. Within seconds, he had found his goal, in the same corner of the room as the toilet, and began to scale the wall towards it.

Screaming continued to come from Kagome until she looked up and saw the camera mounted on the wall. It stared at her without shame until a sudden ball of steel interjected, and a metal claw stabbed through the black lens.

For a moment, they stayed silent, InuYasha hanging from the camera by a claw and Kagome halfway out of the tub, frozen in place in the middle of reaching for a towel to wrap around herself.

InuYasha didn't come down until she had retracted herself back to the bath, burrowing down into the warm water again, pulling the curtain all the way shut. When he did drop, he hit the floor with a dizzying bounce, and skittered carefully across the tiles to the door. There he stopped, and began shifting left and right, glaring for other cameras he might have missed.

"InuYasha?" Kagome called from the bath, eventually.

He didn't look towards her when he responded. "Yeah?"

"You're still here…"

"Very good, wench," he growled, maintaining his patrol.

"Thanks for doing that for me, but… could you leave me alone for a bit."

Was she stupid?

"No," he said, with no room for argument. "I won't look, so just take your bath."

"Okay," was her timid reply.

For a while, only steam from the water passed through the air, and InuYasha had to keep rubbing off his lens on Kagome's shirt strewn on the floor.

Then, even quieter. "InuYasha?"

"Yeah, Kagome?"

"Would it be okay if I wasn't strong for a little while?"

…

"Yeah, it's fine."

InuYasha did his best to ignore the soft sound of tears as he stood watch over her.

* * *

The first thing Terri did, getting into her room, was fumble for the lights. The accommodations had thrown her for a loop, but she recovered pretty easily. There was a big reclining chair and a queen size bed waiting for her, along with a bathroom and a little dresser.

Instinct told her that there was something terribly wrong with the situation, but even if there was, there was nothing she could do, so instead of worrying about it, she went and peed (which she had been needing to do for the past several hours). Then she plopped herself down in the lazy boy, clasped her hands in front of her hand, and sat.

It was an hour before she once again stood up, and glared about the room. She went to the bathroom, gargled with water in lieu of a toothbrush, and primped her hair as best she could.

There were pajamas in the dresser, but she could never find pajamas that fit her, so she would have been surprised if Taisho could. She skipped changing, and instead moved about the room and systematically destroyed the cameras, ripping them off the wall and smashing them into unrecognizable chunks of metal.

Then, when she was convinced that nobody was watching her, she lay down on the bed, and, holding tight to one of the plush pillows, began to cry.


	25. Psyche

Well, now that everyone along with their mother is freaking out over the fact that they've had a note that said "Garret Jax" has updated, you're going to hate me.

Although: hopefully not as much as other abandonment's.

I've had an opportunity, but it requires me discontinuing. Before you get mad, though, Hanyou.exe is not finished. This 'opportunity' requires me rewriting the thing, reqorking it here and there, and making sure it's solid through and through.

I've decided I like the plot too much to (not to offend) waste it on a fanfic. I'm taking the plot, gutting it, and reworking it into an original piece for my Senior workshop. I intend to attempt to get it published.

So that's that. I can't thank you all enough for your support all these years of writing. I don't think anyone's here that was back from the beginning of my writing career (some six or seven years ago, I believe. Heavenly Father, has it been that long?), but if you have been, you faithful ones especially, I owe a great debt of gratitude too. I wouldn't be a writer without you.

Thanks everybody. I hope to see you all, someday, at a book signing, for a little work that who's title I'm not totally sure of, yet, but I hope it'll end with .EXE. If you ever happen to see something like that in the sci-fi section of barnes&noble years from now, do me a favor and buy it: the sales won't hurt me.

Anywho (I think that's my famous catchphrase, now)…

Thanks so much, guys.

Goodbye.

Garret Jax


End file.
